Apr 20, 2012

The New Blogger: Welcome to Bedlam


To say I hate the new blogger is being truthful, and not unkind.

I woke up this morning to discover...just like a lot of bloggers did.....that the interface behind the secret world of blogging had somehow magically changed over night.

And it is not a kind nor a user friendly place to be. Blogger interface is the place where those of us who blog create, edit, load photos, save settings, and finally publish, all of our blog posts that everyone reads ....but not all of you know about.

This morning I apparently went into the back door to a strange new world where everyone but me had been working all night in Cahoots.

I have been in many places, but I have never been in Cahoots. Apparently you can't go there alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. Apparently, a whole bunch of blogger techies have been in Cahoots for a very long time planning the complete overthrow of my sanity.


I decided I would not get mad, I would get even. I would learn to use the new blogger interface, which is tantamount to learning to speak aloud in Braille because no matter what I do or say or type, I seemed to be in my own world apart from the rest of the blogger interface.

They didn't seem to see me, hear me, sense me, or listen to me. Not one bit of anything I did would work. Do you see these great big spaces? They will not go away, they look normal to me and show up like this. No one is paying attention to me at all back here in blogger interface land.








I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there. Blogger has not wanted to recognize me in anyway. They have not recognized me as the owner of this blog who has the right to create simple but well thought out blog posts, filled hopefully with a bit of humor, intelligence, and with a lot of photographs of things I love sharing with others. Today, I seemed to be in Cognito to everyone else who has been completely in Cahoots.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport. You have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my family, friends and those with whom I have worked. And now, thanks to Blogger and all of those genius I.Q. bloggers. I went from in Cahoots, to in Cognito, to totally in Sane.




Now, my closest ex-friends, and family will tell you that I have always been one step on the wrong side of sanity since childbirth. My mother and father claimed I was supposed to be born on Christmas Day, but the doctor had a Christmas party to get to, so he stuck a mask over my mother's face, ordered my father out of the delivery room, and he had my Alaskan father tell him moose hunting stories until the nurse informed the doctor that my mother's pre-medicated early delivery was imminent.





As a result, I was literally born upside down and backwards. Medical professionals refer to that as transverse and breech but I call it the logical conclusion to those who go into Cahoots, force others to be in Cognito, and cause the rest of us to be labeled in Sane.

I would like to go into a lot of Conclusions, here....but you have to jump to those apparently, and I am not in my best physical shape for vigorous activities, anymore. Why? Because after spending 5 hours trying to figure out the new blogger, I couldn't even unbend my body to stand again, and not only did every single part of me moan, groan, and creak but somehow, I finally magically, accidentally, hit some correct button and saw a glimmer of hope in actually creating a post, saving it and finding my way back to my webpage again. I'm not sure, actually I rather doubt I'll ever be able to do this again. So, right now I am typing as if my life depended on it, because it might end up being the only post I'll ever be able to type again.

I have also been in Doubt, like this, before. That is a sad place to go and I try not to visit there too often. Once you doubt yourself and your ability to do things properly, you are pretty much left in doubt from that point on ...and I hate to be one of those rigid people who is that sure of herself that she knows she will always be in Doubt and not just in Cahoots, in Cognito, or borderline one foot over into in Sane.

Now, I've sat at the computer more hours than that before and I've been in Flexible, before, but only when it was very important to stand firm. It's not my fault that being in Flexible is one of the logical consequences of sitting in a chair for 5 hours staring into a computer monitor while mumbling to myself.




I finally realized at that point, that I was definitely on the verge of being in Coherent. I made myself a cup of hot tea and ate a couple of cookies and thought....you see, you can still take care of business and solve problems after all! I was hungry and I found food and I ate!


Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older. But after visiting the home this morning, and knowing that at 62, I was the youngster there and all of the seniors thought I was brilliant, witty, and kept them all at the edge of their seats with my stories. Ok. several of them were falling asleep, it's true, but most of my tall tales did keep a couple of them wondering what I'd say or do, next! And if the others were just trying to escape, they were apparently more in Capable than I was, but as far as I know...I'm the only one who managed to escape. Now, at one point, I did mention taking them all outside tomorrow for wheel chair races..three agreed and two didn't and one of the two was the home health care aide... but now she's in Doubt with the rest of us in Cahoots, and me in Cognito so I at least we have her wondering!

One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense. It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart. At my age I need all of the stimuli I can get...so imagine those eighty and ninety year olds! I may have been a bit over the top for all of them, but if you would have seen their grins, you'd know I was better than nothing and did managed to pull three of them out of Depression. Being in Depression, is just about as bad as it can get. Oh wait..there is one more thing....

Now, if I can just avoid getting in Continent. That's the biggest drawback of sitting in one place for far too long, and then finding out you just can't run as fast as you used to. Ask me how I know....yep, the oldsters at the home told me all about it this morning!

You know, now that I think of it, maybe the new Blogger interface isn't really that bad. It might have upset me for most of the day, but I guess really and truly there are some things, and some places that might be worse!


8674 Come and Play
Michele Bilyeu
for sale at the AAQ website
$45

With thanks to the original jokes that this became a parody of and to the blogger techies who just gave me a reason to keep my brain sharp for one more day ;)

POST NOTE WRITTEN THE NEXT DAY:

After hours of searching I found a way to temporarily be allowed to switch back to the old blogger. I then switched from a dot com domain name to my old blogspot site address and reposted, and republished this blog post in order for me to appear in my Follower's Gadget in the sidebar and in sidebar linking lists for blog following.

This will only work until everyone is officially inducted, against their wills, into the New blogger and only because I figured out how to temporarily get the Old Blogger back. The secret for that is to click on the cogwheel on the horrible new dashboard page and then click on 'return to old blogger'. That option will be removed soon...so enjoy it while you can!

Apr 17, 2012

Kitchen Quilts: Potholder Ideas and Tutorials








When I need potholders, whether they are for myself or as gifts for others, it really doesn't take very long to make one, or two, or even an entire set!

I like to use up scraps and make any and all kinds..from art potholders, mitts and other "kitchen quilts" that can be displayed as little works of art year round to practical ones ..the easier, the better!

And if you're not a quilter and binding frightens you, leave it off and just turn sections inside out and then seam right sides together like any sewing projects from pillows or pillowcases on...


My double sided, double ended quilt mitts at the end potholders, are especially popular and often requested as gifts. The double ended potholder or casserole grabber is great for hanging over the over door handle and grabbing out casserole pans, pies and cakes or anything requiring two hands and easy dexterity!

You can make them from scraps as I often do or plain without patchwork. My reverse side is always plain unless I want to make holiday ones and they can even be different holidays on each side.1

This one comes out in the fall..starting in late September through Thanksgiving! And it has lots and lots of coordinating regular potholders and table mats, table cloths for buffets and so on. Scraps multiply like bunnies, you can always find more to create more fun things!














No pattern is even needed, for any of these, but I do include photo tutes in my side bar at all times for these. Without a tutorial, just cut your batting to size, and flip and stitch random pieces of fabric ..beginning in the center and moving out from each end. This is the same technique used in String Quilting quilts! Super easy, and so relaxing and fun to make!



A double handed potholder hanging over the oven door really pushes them over the top as 'kitchen art' and gets them noticed, as most potholders are in drawers when not in use.

So, a double handed potholder is not only functional, but door art, and is a greatly appreciated gift..especially if you make new ones every year..or even better, for every holiday! Imagine these in Christmas fabrics, or Valentine's, or even Easter..how cute would that be?




And for Christmas, and birthdays, because my own three grown children are all exceptionally artistic, they pretty much have to be handmade and I try a bit harder to experiment with an artistic element or two...just for my fun, as well as to learn how to do new things.



So, now if the fabric is right for being a bit more artsy...and batiks, or course, are perfect....I do something extra as I did here by rubbing on a bit of metallic shine with Shiva oil paint sticks. You simply let the stick paint dry for 24 hours after applying them, and then iron them...with a fabric sheet or a pressing cloth between it and the iron...for a few minutes to super set them. They are not only gorgeous pretty, but completely washable and no, they don't rub off after this process.

Now, my use of striking batiks and art crayons may be too over the top for you, but imagine them in folksy fabrics, country charmers, or vintage linens in a crazy quilt! Anything goes and any one of these can go from form and functional to a true art quilt for kitchen display, as well as use. Imagine a whole basket of your own little kitchen quilts on the counter for celebrations..easy to find, fun to use, and it shows off your own love of sewing and quilting to family and friends!


Yep, everyday art is a lot of creative fun. And for me it takes a lot less time, than going shopping, parking, searching, buying, and bringing home store bought gifts.

Gifts from my heart and hands to theirs...both figuratively, and literally!


1. Collect the orphan blocks, strips or strings, you wish to use. These are mine and no matter what, I knew I was going to make them...and only them...work.


2. Begin the process of laying down pieces and strips, beginning from the center (I used that one big chunk with the stripe in the middle) and adding strips...as if making a crazy quilt.



3. And because you want to be free and easy and not precise... only random...I just keep going around and around ...similar to adding logs to a log cabin block.






4. When you are happy with it, then you can add borders, if you choose, or a backing and just bind it...or not!  I added in pieces of selvage to some of mine.

Add your backing (or you can do your piecing through a backing fabric just as if it were a string pieced foundation fabric! I do that a lot!! Quilt as you go, made easy!



 5. Here the binding strips..I keep mine wide and double them up for durability with two rows of stitching..I use my pot holders a lot!


6.Stitch down the binding, thinking about a little back piece for fun and I did add in the little heart on the back by the end.

 And voila..its done!

Scraps, Scraps, Scraps...make potholders and eliminate clutter and stress ;-)  When I feel out of sorts, making potholders is my go to project

Need projects for older children who are learning to sew or need teacher gifts? How about for sewists who can make simple things but are afraid of "quilting"? How about Somerset Star layered potholders for those who have talents and want to expand them? So many terrific things to make and do! 



 


For other potholder tutorials...More Kitchen Quilt Magic!...check out"





 I love to also make coffee press wraps to match, as well as double handed potholders that can easily lift hot casseroles out of the oven, but hang over the handle on your oven door when you're not using them. Check out my other links below!



Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join in the Liberated Quilting Challenge and make or donate small art quilts to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!

Apr 11, 2012

What's On My Bed?



After a long and hard working weekend...I wish it was me!! But I'll settle for quilts, and lots of them!! And since Bonnie Hunter is asking...I'm showing, and I'm also telling!

By all appearances, I believe if something is worth doing, it's really worth doing ...and not just the best that you can, and as much as you can, but with as much flair as you can muster! So, I sleep under not one, not two, not three...but FOUR quilts! And if this was a cold winter's night...it'd be five (and a wool blanket and a cat) !

I may have grown up in Alaska, with 100 mph Taku winds and 3' of snow that I walked to school in every day ..wearing a dress, since pants weren't allowed in the dark ages...but I like my creature comforts now and I really, really like using a LOT of quilts.

In the land of the far north....A 'one dog night' is when it's just a bit cold, 'two dog night' a bit colder, a 'three dog night'..quite cold and you're singing a song from the 60's or 70's, but a five quilt night is..... socks and quilts and bunches of cats!

And to prove that there really are four quilts on this bed. Here's the quilt count by layers:



Top to Bottom:
1. Whole cloth, one color, machine quilted by a professional
2. Trip Around the World, 2" squares, hand quilted
3. Whole cloth, one color with embroidered flowers here and there, machine quilted
4. Scrappy Strings, hand tied

And the best part of all? Everything is homemade, handmade, garage sale finds like my $5 chairs, and $60 quilt chest, $15 art posters, and hand me down furniture. You don't have to be rich to have comfort! The chair to the far right...was made by a patient at the state mental hospital. Cracks me up that he wrote 'genuine Chippendale' in pencil underneath the State metal plate...$5!

And yes, I made the dust ruffles, valances, table cloths, and chair covers, too! It's all old, a bit faded by lots of good use, and time, but I love all of it!

Check out the other submissions and play along if you like with Bonnie Hunter and her
"What's On Your Bed?" links.





And of all of these quilts which is my favorite...my string quilt! Easiest to make, used up a ton of scraps, and is so toasty warm that the sheer weight of it makes me feel good. Clare Worthy just posted in our libquilters yahoo group posted the news that Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilting bookwas listed as available for $300...at least in Amazon France....say what? $300...that's a major investment! Glad, I already own a copy of that and more! It looks like over here in 'America' its only 166.22 for a new copy? Yep, reuse, recycle and reduce costs!

Gwen does have a new book out, published on March 28th, but Amazon is claiming it's already out of stock...temporarily. But AQS still has in their for sale page..hmmm. So any of you with books by Gwen..hand on to them unless you need to send a kid to college in another 10 years. And you might sell one on ebay and pay for their schooling by then!

Climb under a pile of quilts, add a cat or maybe three dogs and read a really good quilting book ;)



Oh, and did I mention? My little 9 inch by 12 inch art quilt just earned $175 in the April Auction for AAQI! $175 for Alzheimer's research funding! Yeah, baby...I'm a happy quilter!

Time to jump on that bed, and relax with a good book. Oh wait...I have FOUR quilts in progress in the sewing nook!


Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join in her Liberated Quilting Challenge for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!

Apr 8, 2012

Easter Happenings



Happy Easter to all who celebrate this glorious time of rebirth, and renewal. May your baskets be full, your sewing machines taking a day of rest, and may you all be blessed with family, friends, and a sense of tradition and community!

After a hard and busy last few weeks, it felt so good to go into the sewing room and work on some easy pillowcase gifts, and quilting fabrics and trims for my ongoing charitable giving of quilts. I have had three small art quilts, three baby quilts, and three pillowcases all in progress at once! During times of challenge, loss, or stress...it is good to keep the heart and the hands busy and in service to those people, and those causes, we care most deeply about.

For those of you in our Jewish community, may you share, and celebrate
a blessed holiday of Passover, as well.


Many of us in our online blogging community mourn the passing of our dear friend, ROSALYN MANESSE.

I have been deeply saddened by our mutual loss of this dear,dear woman and pray for her three children, grandchildren, and her husband. I shall always cherish our emails back and forth, and the friendship that we shared over the past five years.

Roz faced so many family challenges, and her own illness, with so much strength, and amazing, and lovely grace. May her family be strengthened by her love, and their own sense of family and faith-filled community.

3588 - Tribute to Modigliani
by Rosalyn Manesse

Roz was also a member of my Liberated Quilting Challenge and made several donations to (AAQI). What treasures those quilts are now! Truly made by the gift of pure spirit of Roz's heart, and with her own loving hands. I am so proud to have known her and to have featured this quilts as part of our ongoing, online group challenge. Bless you, Roz! Roz blogged at Roz-Counterpane and at Rosalyn's Kitchen Hints and published a cooking book. Rosalyn Manesse:Easy Kosher Cooking

And as always, I cannot help but to urge you to consider making, or purchasing a quilt in her memory. Roz made, and donated her two quilts to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) as she not only coped with her husband's Lewy Body Dementia, but her own series of strokes. Blessing to all who loved her, may you know that we will never forget her!



And of course, life and loving continue to go on.....as we all celebrate these Judeo-Christian holi-days, and still cope with our own stresses, and life challenges. May sewing and quilting and all of the lovely acts of creation of beauty in our lives continue to strength, and give all of our live continued purpose and joy.

Thank you for all of your continuing support of my own projects..... and of my blog.... which has amazingly gone over the 3 million visitors bar this past week!!! I meant to do a drawing and have a giveaway ..but one will be coming soon, I promise.

Know that I treasure each and every one of you, and I am so sorry that I have not been able to keep up with all of your emails, personal requests for information, links, or quilts for donation.

And before I forget (literally) !!!!! There are three full days left to big on my current Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative auction quilt! Remember, your purchase is really a donation to Alzheimer's research funding.


Auction Bidding Until 10pm on April 10th

And more wonderful news! AAQI just reached a wonderful milestone.....its 10,000th quilt was donated. Congratulations to Kristin from our Liberated Quilting Challenge ......Quilt #10,000 was made by Kristin Shields from Bend, Oregon.
for creating the 10,000th quilt to be donated and to all of you who have made, donated money, or purchased a quilt since 2006. All of us who volunteer for AAQI love you!

Happy Easter!


Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join in her Liberated Quilting Challenge for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!