Crazy String Quilting...at a Mile a Minute!

I've been a crazy stripper, stringing along at a mile a minute all week long. In my universe, when life gets busy, it gets super, duper, crazy busy. In my universe, when life becomes challenging, it becomes so challenging I have to remember to breathe.

I'm entering the speedtrack now. My motor is revving, my gas tank is filled, I'm wearing my seat belt and full speed is right up ahead. (take a deep breath, here)

I have a MIL who needs a lot of care, and chauffeuring to doctor appointments since her last bad fall 3 weeks ago, when she lay on her bedroom floor for 12 straight hours til someone checked on her in the morning.I have my youngest daughter, who just broke her foot and lives in a cabin in the woods 2 hours away.

I have my 92 year old father and 84 year old mother in Alaska who wish I could come back up to help out again...yesterday, if not sooner! I call on the phone lots and lots,until I can head back up, instead. I have a brother-in-law who was admitted to the ER last week for stitches on his forehead, then had tests run for his fainting spell, and now needs open heart surgery fro 5 blocked heart valves...2 at 80%, 1 at 90%, and 2 at 100%. (take a deep, deep, breath,and send a prayer for him, here)

I have three sets of company coming to stay here... all within the next 2 weeks. I just worked my quilt guild's "Bolt to Bed' all day Wednesday. And I am working our State Fair's Quilting Guild booth, Saturday the 5th, and need to come up with 6 quilts of my own to hang and only 4 are finished. (take another deep relaxing breath, here and then smile, okay laugh at me, here)

And while my mind is racing, my body is crawling. (send me lots of good thoughts, instead of thinking that I am nuts, here)

I worked my Mid-Valley Quilt Guild's 'Bolt to Bed' speed quilting charity quilts for over 12 hours on Wednesday and had such a ball, that I dare not complain too much about that! We used all scraps this year instead of bolts, and while not one was finished and put to bed by the end of the 9 am to 9 pm day...but I definitely bolted to bed, as soon as I got home. Before I bolted, I decided to make 'one giant leap for mankind' first.

As I was bagging up our day's trash (and we saved every single scrap, including threads to donate to the Union Gospel Mission for making into new fibers for cash in Japan) I went out back of the hall we were renting...to find the dumpster.

"Where is the dumpster?" I asked the friend by my side. She pointed and said "Over there". Over there I went.... in the pitch black darkness...over there suddenly being 3 or more feet down, feet first. It was a loading dock and neither of us could tell in the dark. I was still standing up, only I was 3 feet down.

No sense of direction, no depth perception and eyes that don't see in the dark. Luckily, I landed on my feet and was laughing SO hard, I undid lots of the damage by a surge of hilarious energy. I figure I may have to dump 5 personal pounds now, because I must be at least an inch shorter!!!

And yes, every inch of me hurts. Not just from my leap of faith, but because I'd been sitting all that day and sewing for 12 hours with only small stretching breaks in between. I had a ball, I got a lot of future quilt blocks done and I made lots and lots of new friends. We had a turnout of almost 100 women. And there is nothing more fun than 100 women in one room all quilting at once!

And yes, the rest of my life is a crazy patchwork of bits and pieces, strips and strings. But so too, are all of our lives a lot of the time. We hope, we pray, we try, we think good thoughts, we do, we give, we share, and we keep on, keepin' on.

Some days, it's a mile-a-minute-craziness, some days it's playing in the scrapbags of life. But each and every day that we get is still a blessing and one to be grateful for! So, today...take a breath, be grateful, and if you're thinking of taking a new step or even a leap of faith..please just don't do it in the dark!

Frugal Friday extra: My own tutorial and free patterns list: String Quilting (Primers and Patterns!) and Mary'sHeartStrings Quilt Project,

shown above:
Ta Da! An August Finish: A scrappy strings/mam blocks patchwork of fun! Easy to do, fast to finish, and so much super, duper fun!

Wonky, Liberated, Variable, or Maverick Stars....

In 1996, Gwen Marston released her now famous "Liberated Quiltmaking" and unleashed the concept of bravely taking scissors in hand and cutting directly into fabric without measuring, without using a pattern, and without resorting to templates of any kind...and the truest concepts of "liberated quiltmaking' were sent out into the universe in printed form.

Once, rotary cutters were invented (Olfa 1979) liberated quilting took on a totally different meaning ;) but a lot of us still prefer to design as we go, no longer use templates, don't mind (and even encourage) slightly irregular measurements and some of us even prefer not to measure for borders, bindings, sashings or cornerstones. We simply wing it with a song and a prayer and let it fly. Tradition lies at the root, experience guides us, but creativity becomes the driving force.

A decade plus later, all of us who embrace free form concepts continue to be inspired by Gwen's ideas and 'processes'. Shown above, Gwen's "Process 12: Free Pieced Stars", which she also referred to as the "Variable Star." And while this has been widely repeated under many different names from liberated stars, to wonky stars, to free-pieced stars, to Bushfire Stars, to stars by a variety of quilter's names.... in the beginning it was Gwen's design from this now famous book that started the free pieced star movement. The single or multiple piecing of the center square may vary, but having that irregular eight pointed star remains the same.

And yes, due to our eager demands ;) a reprint of her book should be coming out some time in the future. Until then, if you're lucky enough to own a copy, as I am, you "Bless Your Lucky Stars!" and incorporate the freedom of technique in everything from traditional fabrics and designs to the wonkiest of orphan block quilting.

Some of my own free pieced stars found their way into a little picnic quilt for my youngest daughter's birthday. Now, living in a small cabin out in the outlying woodlands of a larger town, she has been lucky to see dozens of deer each and every day, a beaver family building their dam, and and many other small animals like porcupines, nutria, weasels or field mice that skitter about. Each day she follows a small path to a lovely little oasis of a creek and sits, watches and listens, to the life which surrounds her.

A little sit-upon birthday quilt seemed called for. And what a serendipitous discovery to find fabric with little cabins and teapots and ducks with the phrases 'Bless Our Cabin' and 'tea cabin' amongst the designs...just as if waiting for me to notice it, among all of the scrap fabric I have collected over the years.

The concept of a little cabin in the woods, translated into a place of refuge; a respite along one's journey where you might sip a cup of tea, commune with all that surrounds you, and feeling refreshed and revitalized, then continue along one's way, became a concept, a blessing, a process and finally...a quilt.

My little quilt 'Bless Our Tea Cabin' was created, delivered, and received at her birthday celebration, along with tins and boxes of tea, a new teapot, a little picnic hamper, tea towels, and wild blackberry cobbler.

Liberated Quilt Blocks and Patterns...Wonky or Liberated Star blocks

Fiskars Rotary Ruler and Speed Cutting

   

If you've never seen, much less used a Fiskars rotary ruler, you don't know what you are missing! I found one at Walmart...on sale for $25. It seemed like more than I wanted to spend at the time, but now I absolutely love it!!! I'm using it almost exclusively for strips and strings cutting. I make the attached rotary cutter wheel go across both up and down and I've gone through as many as eight layers without too much trouble. Safer and faster than using a regular ruler and rotary cutter. You just lay it on your mat, use the ruler on the left and slice and dice like a NASCAR driver on a speedway track! Vroom, vroom!

I went back to the store for another one to give as a gift or as backup for the future...I loved it that much....and they were not only all gone, but even Joann's didn't have any in stock at the regular price. So...if you see one, I'd suggest you buy it! They really work easily and quickly! No more arthritis stiffness from repetitive cutting for me...at least when I'm on the straight and narrow and can go full speed ahead!!! 

As seen here, my project (in between trips to ER's and helping family) has been to cut those 3" strips into 3" squares and quickly piece free form stars. I've been using mine all last week to make these 'fractured stars' for my last project...a little picnic quilt for DD#1. With the help of my speedy Fiskars rotary ruler...I still fit another quilt from start to finish in my busy last week. Full speed ahead!

 

Quilter's Review - Cutter-And-Ruler Combo Is Safe And Easy

Note: If you find one, please add a comment as to its purchase location. If you have one you don't use, please let me know so I can assist getting it to a quilter with a disability.

Fractured Images

When life imitates art, creating fractured images takes on a whole new meaning! Another trip to the ER, and another long distance care taking jaunt in one week's time. DD#2 fell while cleaning up after a camping weekend and fractured her foot. This agile, flexible, articulate and intelligent little bit of a young woman who successfully graduated with a double major and impossible work load ....ends up being done in by a wet rug.

And parallel to that this week, a friend is teaching our Monday community quilting group a new speedier method of working with fractured image quilts and large floral repeats. And each of us was searching high and low through our stash for large enough, spaced far apart enough and without diagonal repeats for our upcoming learning curves, folds, pins and cut-ups.

If it involves directions I'll be challenged, trust me. Leaving early in the morning and driving 2 hours south to my daughter's cabin in the woods outside of Eugene, another 40 minutes to a hospital and then back to her new little home again was all in the light of day.

But after helping her out with the final stages of clutter and displacement of belongings from her recent move, and getting her to the doctor 'to boot', had me driving home late at night in the dark forests of the farmland and mountains of outlying Eugene.

Seeing deer and other wildlife by the refracted glare of my oncoming lights created an astigmatized world of additional imagery and new perceptions under stress...bits and pieces of life, art, and nature all combined into one kaleidoscoped experience of a day.

And yes, I got lost....directions, mapping skills and cell phone coverage...all gone. I wandered in the wilderness for quite a while, but finally found my way back to civilization and the freeway north ;)

Now, if fractures will quickly heal, and quilts will magically fold themselves into all the right places, I just might get some sewing time in and finish some of my other projects before my youngest turns a whole year older ;)

It's not easy being stuck in one place when you wish you were somewhere else, not a good feeling going in circles and feeling lost and certainly no fun at all, when one feels helpless and at the mercy of the kindness of others when you truly want to be strong, independent and active!

Now, it's another trip on that freeway south this weekend to help the same daughter celebrate her birthday and send more healing energy into that 'basic black fashion statement' and smooth out all of the fractured folds back into a whole cloth piece of life all over again!

shown:
quilt by one of our Monday group members and an image of DD's fractured foot. Two ways of dealing with the stress of a fractured image ;)

Frugal Friday tip:
Look out for wet rugs, don't drive in new territory at night, and use large floral patters with vertical and not diagonal repeats ;)

Dancing With the Stars

It's mid-August and the stars are beginning to come out to play, once again. Today, the newest 'Dancing With the Stars" lineup (set to begin Sept. 21, 200) was announced. If my MIL had heard of even half of them she'd be dancing right along with them. Instead, I can picture her at home, balanced on her royal blue walker saying "Who?"

The celebrity cast, which includes the one person she will know....and probably root for...Donny Osmond, also includes a pro-wrestler, a snowboarder, actors and actresses, models, and a former member of Congress.

Now most of us have at least heard of singer Macy Gray, actress Melissa Joan Hart, supermodel Kathy Ireland, superbowl champion Michael Irvin, Tom DeLay ,the former House majority leader, teen hearthrob singer, Aaron Carter, and of course all around performer, Donny Osmond (brother, of course to Marie...fabric designer and sewing machine saleswoman ;)

Less known...at least in my MIL's small circle..... would be recording artist Mya, Iron Chef host Mark Dacascos, actor Ashley Hamilton (son of George), Olympic swimming gold medalist Natalie Coughlin, supermodel Joanna Krupa, actress, Debi Mazar (if you don't know her name, you'll probably recognize her face and distinctive voice) professional snowboarder, Louie Vito and professional wrestler, Chuck Liddell. While I didn't know that name, he is apparently the face of the 'Ultimate Fighting Championship', and the light-heavyweight champion of the world. And of course, you'll note...no LaToya and no Paula Abdul...so much for celebrity gossip ;)

And then of course, there's Kelly Osbourne. Singer, actress and media personality, Kelly's father is rock icon, Ozzy Osbourne, and her mother is well-known TV personality Sharon Osbourne. I've heard of Kelly, watched her on those celebrity news shows..but when I saw her photo in with blonde hair...didn't have a clue as to who she was. So, she may surprise us in other ways as well. At least we can be guaranteed an interesting audience of family members...not just for her, but all of the stars. The Osmonds alone will pack the house!

I suspect when hubby and I are watching from our home in Salem, and on the phone with MIL in her home in Stayton, she'll still be rooting for Donny Osmond. After all, he won the hearts of millions as both a member of the Osmonds and, with his sister,Marie, as the youngest co-hosts in prime time history with "The Donny & Marie Show."

Donny Osmond has been a singer, musician, Broadway and film actor, talk show and game show host, best-selling author, and even a champion race car driver. Well, if he could only snowboard, wrestle, and had run for Congress, he could fill in for the others and take the whole thing!

Yep, I can see it now. MIL in her rocker with her walker by her side, hooping and hollering every time Donny comes onstage to dance. When the stars come out on Sept. 21, she'll be watching all of them, wishing on a couple of them, and finding something to look forward to every Monday and Tuesday nights.

And that's all it takes to make life and living worthwhile. Right, Dorothy? You're not in Kansas anymore. It's almost time for the Wizard of Os....

Reflections...Inside and Out

Each and every time I have a chance to simply sit down, and look around at the full, but still very hard working lives that we have created for ourselves, I see little snapshot areas of that life reflected in the things I save, things I collect, and the littlest of things that I create.

Some days, having time to sit down is harder that others. Some days, having time for doing the things I love to do, is even more of a challenge. Sometimes, the people I am with, the things I need to do for them, or just the way that life keeps tossing out curve balls, is just the way things are.

The secret for me, is to always wake up in the morning with one thing that makes me want to start my day. No matter how tired I am, or when the challenges of family and friends and the care taking required by them seems overwhelming, I know in my heart that there has to be hope, something that always makes me happy, and something...anything...to look forward to in that day.

At least 12 times a year, someone I love has to be rushed to an emergency room. And each time, many days are spent in hospital rooms, at bed sides, cleaning or doing things in their houses, or simply holding the hand of someone I care for.

Sometimes, it's one of my parents in Alaska, sometimes it's my 93 year old mother-in-law, here in Oregon, and sometimes its a friend in need that I reach out to with an email or a phone call or a visit. It's what I've chosen to do with my life. I help other people. I care for them, I do for them, I'm just energetically there for them, or I make things for them ;) My life's work is to create.... artistically, energetically, and emotionally.... for myself, for my family, and for others.

I help pull out the negative, I work to activate the positive, and I try to find ways that I can share the energies of those creations, with those that need them or are willing to accept them. It's not always easy being happy. It's often aggravatingly hard. But it's a life choice, a direction, a goal and a journey.

Each day, I try to find one thing.....one idea, one book, one project, one goal.... that excites me and makes me want to do something besides cooking and cleaning, laundry and yard work, and the almost 6 months a year that I spend simply helping others who need my help.

So, today...after almost a week spent helping my 93 year old mother-in-law who took another bad fall...had to have the paramedics called for her, and ending up hospitalized for a couple of days...I think of the good things in life...and not just the tiring and hard things.

My MIL is doing fine, no bones were broken or even fractured, she's finally switched to the side of the bed that's closest to the door so her walker can be used all the way into bed, and she's finally agreed to wear a Lifeline alert necklace after adamantly refusing up 'til now!

It's a bit of a drive to her house, and we've gone and helped out almost every day) but my car's air conditioning miraculously healed itself after 2 1/2 years of being broken and the drive gives me time to sit down, to think, and to prepare mentally for her care. So, it's not as bad, at all, as it might have been! So, gratitude's abound!

I'm looking, here, at one of my many bulletin boards, I'm feeling gratitude for fun and for beauty, feeling the love that always lies within any reach, and sending the energy of that love outward to her and to all of you, and reminding you to feel the hugs, sense the inner smile, and remember that love and a hug are always free.

shown:
This pink bulletin board was painted by one of my daughters... a dozen or more years ago. Buy a $5 one from Walmart and just paint it! I constantly fill it with little things that I collect, that catch my eye or simply things I love. It is one of 3 such bulletin boards that I keep in the crafty areas in my house. This one is above a small art supplies table.
and:
And how I got a reflection on the photo of me that looks like its coming out of/into me is the amazing part of this post, It's one of those things that just happens ;)

You are a Child of the Universe....

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, 1927

Historical Postnote:Max Ehrmann (1872–1945), inspired by an urge that Ehrmann wrote about in his diary: "I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift-- a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods."Conventional belief is that Ehrmann actually wrote the prose himself and copyrighted it in 1927.
Around 1959, the Rev. Frederick Kates, rector of Saint Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland, used the poem in a collection of devotional materials he compiled for his congregation. At the top of the handout was the notation: "Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore 1692."
In the 1960s, it was widely circulated without attribution to Ehrmann, sometimes with the claim that it was found in Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore, Maryland, and that it had been written in 1692 (the year of the founding of Saint Paul's). This created a lot of confusion about the prose poem for many, many years.
Nevertheless, the estate of Max Ehrmann has kept various editions of the work in print. And the family is considered to own the copyright to the poem now known as Desiderata.

Watch: a lovely You-tube version, set to the music of Paul Schwartz. 

Photo above from my post:

*Making a Quilted Book or Fabric Journal Cover

*As my 'Frugal Friday' freebie, I offer introspection and gratitude. Always available to any one willing to accept it, always free, and always a gift.

In the Sewing Rooms of Life

If there's one thing I've learned in the past week, it is how each of us must take the bits and pieces of the life we have, and stitch them all together into something better. After three days of helping family, another three working with quilt guild and my Monday quilt group, and another day attending a funeral for a quilting friend's husband..I had a pretty good long look at the meaning of not just helping others and lending support, but actually creating a sense of community under trying circumstances.

Mondays, I sew with my community quilting group and realizing that one younger member was going to try to climb on her hands and knees to our attic storage for 'a certain color of blue fabric', I changed my plans from sewing on a binding, to helping out a friend in a bind, instead ;) She abandoned her scooter and insisted on climbing, (foot braces and post surgery-wrapping clumping along) while I packed along my cellphone and 'mothered her'..... all the way up those dusty, splintery stairs to that 105º attic. She's a good 15 years younger than I am, but been through a lot physically and after I quit my internal huffing and puffing over her absolute stubbornness ;) I just plain had to admire her determination.

Two hours later, we still had not found that 'certain color of blue fabric', but we emptied and sorted dozens and dozens of messy bins and boxes of hodge-podge fabrics and cleaned out a million more pieces of donated odds and ends. And with her directing suggestions and my meager brawn, we repositioned the entire church attic storage into something 200% better than it had been. And we forged a bond between us as we did so.

Then, coming back down to the group again...hot, tired, and dirty, there we found our newly widowed friend. Just a week and a half after her beloved husband's unexpected death. Here she was, joining us to not only keep busy and get out of a suddenly empty house, but to share the love of friendship in both her church family and our group's extended community family of quilters.

And that was another lovely blessing and reminder. We take the scraps, the bit and pieces of our lives that we have been given...and we try to find and to make some kind of order out of them. Not sense, because sometimes there is none, but something else, that can be stitched together into something better, instead.

So, now home from sewing, home from cleaning and boxing and ordering, I enter my own little sewing nook and I have such a deep sense of accomplishment. Somehow, the day ended up as it was meant to be. And yes, my binding is still not finished. And yes, the sewing machine was never set up and used at group. But still, things were done, things were accomplished, others were joined in with in one fashion or another, and we all became one. Neighbors of sorts, helping neighbors. We didn't put up a barn or build a log cabin. We never gathered 'round the campfire. We never even set up a quilting frame and had a quilting bee.

But we were quilters doing, what quilters have done, throughout time. Helping the ones that need help. Learning from the ones we have something to learn from, and teaching by heart, and with hand, and by giving out deed...not only from and to others....but to ourselves, as well.

And that is the true magic of quilting. That magical stitching that comes together in the many sewing rooms of our lives.