Living Green

When the Executive Producer of the Oprah! show called my husband on April 1st (2010), my first thought was that someone was playing a prank on us. Turned out, she really was the executive producer for Oprah Winfrey and she was offering us the chance of a lifetime...to have one of our green building clients be featured on Oprah!'s Earth Day show on living an environmental lifestyle.

As the builders of the very first 'Passive House US on the Pacific Coast (there was one built in Canada in Whistler B.C. for the Olympics) this Executive producer did a search and we were selected for the amazing construction techniques that my son, Blake, (who took an intensive course and passed an arduous test to become a genuine Certified Passive House Consultant) and my husband Larry (Bilyeu Homes, Inc.) are using in the building of a new construction home, here in Salem, Oregon.

A Passive House is a very well-insulated, virtually air-tight building that is primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people, electrical equipment, etc. Something as simple as using a hair dryer, almost instantly warms the internal temperature of the home. Using today's highest energy standards techniques, the heating energy consumption of a home is cut by an amazing 90%.

When my husband was asked if any of the customer's who've bought our 'passive houses' had a wife with young children who would be willing to appear on a show, he had to tell her that the house was not only not lived in yet, but they didn't have children. What he should have told her, was that it was not only the first house in Oregon, but the first on the West coast and only one of a handful in the entire nation, and then bragged up the house!

Instead, Oprah's producer was directed to other 'passive house' members, here in Oregon, and they were able to contact a couple in Portland that are doing a remodel to their current home and are using some of the same concepts. The Everharts are a wonderful family and live a great and very green life, so they should be quite fun to watch on the Oprah! today.

This wasn't our first brush with near fame. Two years ago the cable network show "Househunters' called my husband, too. They'd heard about another award winning 'green' home that we'd built in the Pringle Creek Community: a Cottage Home Awarded LEED Platinum Certification in 2007, and wanted to feature it as one of the 5 houses a couple would consider buying in the show. The problem with that show, unlike Oprah's which is legit, Househunters was rigged. 

The "winning" couple had already bought a house and they were trying to find 4 more houses for the 'just looked at and didn't buy category. Heck, we aren't losers, why start out that way to begin with? So, he turned that one down too.

And for us? We still live in the first house we built over 32 (in 2010 mind you) years ago. If only I was the owner of our almost finished, new amazing house, heck, even I could have borrowed a couple of young kids for Oprah's sake!!

Next time, I'll answer the phone!! No more unanswered or ignored phone calls by me!

I just know I could have changed Oprah's mind about what kind of show "she thought she wanted" for today. I might have even been able to teach her to sew, and we could have played in my scrapbags, and made all kinds of quilts out of the bits and pieces other quilters throw out, or give away!

Oprah has dogs, doesn't she? In fact, she has two new puppies creating canine chaos in her household. I know she would have just loved a couple of new dog quilts. Those little spaniels would have finally have been able to cuddle up in their kennels and sleep at night.

Maybe we could have started a new series on her new network. I could have traveled the world designing scrappy dog quilts from found materials, Queen Elizabeth's drawing room curtains for her corgi's, Paris Hilton's purse linings for quilted duponi creations for her Chihuahua,Tinkerbell , maybe even the First Lady's Inaugural gown for a bassinet curtain for the Presidential dog's bed!

Oh well, it's so much better being 'almost famous' than not famous at all. I can still seek solace in the sewing room and fondle those strips and strings, smell the finish on a fine piece of quilter's cotton and treasure the free-motion capabilities of my now aging (as am  I) Husquevarna Saphirre. Who needs fame and fortune when your shelves are stacked high with fabric? Even if it is all recycled, re-purposed, donated, and gleaned from other people's trash cans?

And Oprah! you would have just loved me. Sorry, you never got the chance to know what you missed!

Oh, and Happy Earth Day, anyway.-
Go Green for Earth Day 2010 
Links for those who are looking for Bilyeu Homes, the serious version:

First Passive House on the West Coast USA: 16th and Nebraska
Passive House Certification
Bilyeu Homes, Inc.
Passive House US
Passive House N

Articles about the house

• Low Carbon Productions
• Natural Home
• Earth Techling
• Small Planet Workshop
• Sustainable Business Oregon
• TreeHugger
• Green Building Advisor
• Jetson Green
• Serious Materials
• Lookin' Green
• Freedom Pet Pass
• Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce
• Green Fiber
• Earth Advantageorthwest

Global Village

If you could fit the entire population of the world into a village consisting of 100 people, maintaining the proportions of all the people now living on Earth.....

That village would consist of:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 Americans (North, Central and South)
8 Africans

There would be:
52 women and 48 men
30 Caucasians and 70 non-Caucasians
30 Christians and 70 non-Christians
89 heterosexuals and 11 homosexuals

6 people would possess 59% of the wealth (and they would all come from the USA)
80 would live in poverty
70 would be illiterate
50 would suffer from hunger and malnutrition
1 would be dying
1 would be being born
1 would own a computer
1 would have a university degree

If we looked at the world in this way, the need for acceptance and understanding would be obvious. But, consider again the following:

If you woke up this morning in good health, you have more luck than one million people, who won’t live through the week.

If you have never experienced the horror of war, the solitude of prison, the pain of torture, were not close to death from starvation, then you are better off than 500 million people.

If you can go to your place of worship without fear that someone will assault or kill you, then you are luckier than 3 billion people.

If you have a full fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are wealthier than 75% of the world’s population.

If you currently have money in the bank, in your wallet and a few coins in your purse, you are one of 8 of the privileged few amongst the 100 people in the world.

Each of us needs to stop complaining about which President, which Congress, which Nation, is making bad choices....and begin to make those good choices for our own selves...one life at a time...beginning with our own.

So, if you are one of the lucky ones, what is that you are doing in your life, how are you helping others less fortunate, what are your dreams for the year ahead and what do you promise to do, right now, to be the change you wish to see in the world?

shown above:
My recent Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (9" x 12" or smaller) donation quilt and a (4"x 6") fabric postcard. I have donated them, as well as my Liberated Rose Quilt, as my affirmation for the future.

To make your own donation, check out: 28 Ways You Can Help And if you think you don't have the time, see why I make time at: AAQI: From the Heart of a Quilter

To see our donated quilts: Liberated Quilters: Our AAQI Challenge Quilts Update

Playing With Strips and Strings

I've been in the sewing room all week...Easter egging Finn and Magpie Sue to join me in digging through our scrap bins, organizing the strips and strings, and having a sewing circle with all of our leftover orphan blocks and pieces.

When you you're feeling a bit out of sorts, get out the 'orts'... there's nothing better than creating some fun of your own... and asking others to join you and raise your spirits together!

With my wrist rotating once more, and my wrist and my fingers now almost completely usable, I'm working on getting flexibility and strength back into both my wrist and my hand. I've had lots of really unfortunate accidents......dropping and breaking, several really, really special things (due to lack of wrist rotation and strength) as I recuperated from my broken wrist surgery. But hard work and determination are part of my personality and I don't give up...I just keep on, keepin' on no matter what! And every single day, I could, and can still, see and feel improvement.

I've been doing lots of my own physical therapy exercises for getting swelling down, flexibility and strength up. And its so much more fun using both hands in 'normal' ways like sewing, cutting, quilting and so on. So, I sew every single day that I can and for as long as I can...being conscientious of discomfort or swelling.

I also do lots of resting movements to increase 'gliding' of the 9 tendons inside of the carpal tunnel. ....after my alien encounters, it's really crowded in there. 5 of our tendons go to the fingers and 4 of them go to the middle joints of those fingers....our hands are amazing things. All of that just in the carpal tunnel, alone! And when we damage our wrists, we are really damaging our hands and how we can use them, as well. So, as you sew or compute...remember to be aware of what you do, and how you do it. I feel so very, very blessed just to have two hands to use once again!

So, if you're still battling the winter blues, come on out of your caves and join us with some scrappy fun, use your hands, your heart, and your sewing spaces.... and just start putting all of those little leftover pieces of yourself back together, again!

I can't wait to finish this little quilt and show off all of my little orphans in their new 'forever' home in my scrappy orphans quilt and then getting going on something else new and fun!

Easter Greetings and Fun Foolery

Whether April showers make you feel cooped up, shut out, or refreshed and renewed...what better to do than have some fun!

Shown here: the products of our labors.......
April free-piecing foolery, five Easter pillowcases and one little baby quilt for donation, along with a free form bunny boy softie, and some eggcellent greetings from Sophie, Penelope, and Matilda.

From our coop to yours...have a great Easter. And remember that even in the dreariest and darkest days, in the wind and in the rain...we still have so many blessings to be grateful for!

Happy Free-Piecing Fool's Day! by Liberated Quilters for AAQI

From the couch of one fisted Michele in Salem, Oregon to the countryside of one-eyed Clare in Dordogne, France, our "Free-Piecing Fools' caravan of Ladies Aid quilters put on our eyepatches, wrist wraps, leg casts, and Party Hats early this morning, tossing aside our regulation Mariner's Compass, and headed off without rules, rulers, directions, or quilt police from warm beds around the world and off on a wonky Snail's Trail to attend the 1st annual 'Free-Piecing Fools' marathon of quilting.

 There isn't anything that could be more fun then a group of Wonky women and wonderful men off on a Flying Geese Chase all following a meandering Yellow Brick Road and tee-totaling down a Drunkard's Path, to find our way through the Backwoods and Crossroads, past the Clover Leaf of the Washington Puzzle, avoiding the Way to California and finally going, (as Providence would have it) up the wonky "for better or for worse" Altar Steps to A Dandy quilting retreat of perpetual and mindless liberation.

As each of us makes a Churn Dash through the Endless Chain of Rail Fences, up the Pleasant Path from virtual parking lots, to sewing rooms, quilt studios, quilting havens, and free-piecing heavens everywhere......we are braving the winds and the rains of the incoming Storm at Sea and fighting our way through the mountainous piles of fabric piled up on floors, chairs, couches, beds, cats, dogs, husbands, and kids, everywhere.

We honor the traditions of our past, the women who came before us, but we choose to still do it our way and no matter how many Monkey Wrenches are thrown into our day, each of us plays Leap Frog with the tasks and challenges of daily living... because today is April Fool's Day and not a day of Fair Play! It's time to play with the Darting Minnows of Poisson d'avril or Happy April Fool's Day and Focus Pocus our quilting magic to escape the Fishbowl of our Crazy Pieced lives!

Instead, we are playing our non-existent, but still totally virtual, Follow the Leader, with one leader out with an eye infection, another one who is blogless in Austin, and a third who just lays around day after day on her pile of quilts......wimping out with complaints of her broken arm and endless challenges ;)

Whether you are like me, half crazy and over the endless edge, but still Back Home Again to Salem or you live in Kalamazoo or Timbuktu...... it's going to be a Whirligig of a Windmill day.

A day filled with lovely Souvenirs of April Fool's sewing with Blurred Vision as we work on Our Liberated Challenges and free-wheel our way across the pages of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Auction

There isn't anything that could be more fun then a group of liberated quilters off on a Flying Geese chase.... especially when embarking on a Trip Around the World of endless sewing today, and everyday! We celebrate the diversity of our quilting traditions, the history of the women who came before us, and we honor 'our" versions of quilt blocks from around the world.

Join us today, as all of the Free-Piecing Fools celebrate a Virtual Quilt-in together: Finish up a WIP, experiment with something wonky and liberated, or make something special for a charity of your choice.

The remember.......the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative April "Slow & Silent Quilt Auction" To Fight Alzheimer's begins today, April 1...

Check out all of the quilts at: the AAQI Quilt Auction and AAQI Quilt Sale

And if you can't sew straight either, please join the Liberated Quilting and the Liberated Quilters Message Board, in our Liberated Quilting Challenge by clicking here and asking Clare to use her one good eye to sign you up!

And if Clare isn't home, or if she went back to bed as usual...just remember, her time is not our time in France...her fabulous sidekick "Nancie from Texas" is always there to help her (and all of us) out!

What's on your Free-Piecing Fool's Design Wall, today?

I worked on the free piecing fun foolery above plus my projects for AAQI:
Global Village
Liberated Quilting Challenge
Liberated Piecing