It appears that I only post on this Blog about once a year.  I guess no one will "dis" me for posting too much, too often!

Today I am finishing up a memory quilt for a woman I don't even know.  She found me through a local business referral (thank you Julie!), and wanted me to make a quilt from her late son's clothing.  I think she contacted me back in April about it.  It took awhile for the box of clothing to arrive, and in the meantime another huge t-shirt quilt project landed in my lap.  The t-shirt quilt took forever to finish for a number of different reasons, so I wasn't able to even start on the memory quilt until a couple of weeks ago.

I'm grateful to the woman for being so patient; just as I was getting started on the project, she emailed me to kind of say she was tired of waiting, and if I didn't want to do it, it was OK.  Fortunately, this project was only going to be 40" by 50", so it went together pretty quickly, once I was able to carve out a couple of days to tackle it.

It's a little odd working with a dead dude's clothing.  You wonder what he was like, how old he was, what did he do for a living; things like that.  As I was going through the box of clothing, I noticed that almost all of the clothing was in neutral colors:  grays, tans, black.  Even the neckties were pretty plain, although there were some red ones, a couple of blue ones, and one really beautiful yellow one.  All were name brands (as was most of the clothing), and all in impeccable shape.

I looked for signs of wear on the clothing, so I could hopefully work with pieces that he had worn a lot.  I guess he must have cleared out a lot of his worn-out stuff because all of the clothing was in good shape.  And then there were the t-shirts and the sweatshirt.  The sweatshirt was a high school football shirt.  There were only three t-shirts:  a double-sided one in black, a light gray one, and a soft royal blue one.

The double-sided one was a little strange.  The front of the shirt had a large cartoonish figure with a script-like caption that said, "Slam One Down."  The back side was just plain white letters.  It said, "WHO REALLY WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER."  When I first saw this, it made me stop in my tracks, like, "Really? Am I supposed to use this on the quilt?"  But as I worked on the project, I thought, if this is a shirt he wore, then maybe it actually fits in with the idea of a memory quilt.  It also seemed completely opposite from the character of all the other clothing.

The other two shirts were along the lines of "burn-out" fabric - lightweight, but they were also made so the grain of the fabric was twisted.  Yet the shirts hung straight, and didn't seem to be out of whack.  They were similar quality, and were screened inside the back of the collar areas with the company's information.  Same company, but one was made in Peru and the other in another South American country (not Columbia).

So, one would conclude that the gentleman must have traveled to these exotic places at some point in his life, and collected these shirts.  The fronts were "artsy" with original looking designs on them.  Nothing fancy, and silk screened in only one or two colors.

As I was finishing up making the quilt top, I was thinking of titles that might be appropriate for the quilt.  For example, "It's Complicated," or "Not Quite As It Seemed," or "Two Sides to Every Story."

It really doesn't matter too much what kind of title I would give it, because I rarely ever give these quilts their own definitive title.  They are memory quilts, and it's really up to the owner to give it a name - or not.

The thing is, though, that things like the clothes we wear actually do reveal little details about us that make us unique.  No one else's memory quilt will ever have the same components that this one does.  Even though most of the clothing was mass-produced, the combination of colors, textures and choices is unique to this person.

I hope I've done an adequate job on this project, and that the man's mother (who commissioned me) will gain some degree of comfort from it.    

  

Running Out of Lemons

You know the old saying about "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," and all the other variations, including those that include scraps to make quilts and such.  Well, I would like to add another variation, only relating to time.  Are you ready?  Here it is:

"A Snow Day is a Sew Day."  There.  Feel free to interpret it any way you like.  In the past, I've bent the rules to include rainy days, hot days, and even just cloudy days.

The main point, though, is to make the best of each day we've been blessed with, even if it seems like it's going to be a "yucky" day.

Today, as we're winding down our annual visit to the Florida Keys, it's pretty cloudy with the threat of rain.  This was after a pretty serious storm last night that sent us running out to batten down the hatches and stack the kayaks along the side of the house we're renting so we wouldn't have to paddle out into the middle of Florida Bay to retrieve them.

Anyway, here we are.  We're planning on leaving this beautiful place on Sunday morning on our way back up to southern NJ.  Once I finish writing this post, I will take up my needle and thread and work on finishing up last year's block of the month project.  I'm about 70% finished with the blocks (finishing up the last block, but then have to to the appliquéd border, layer, quilt and bind it).  I started out with great intentions, and have the first row quilted (quilt as you go).  I still think this was a good way to do the project, making it more portable to work on, even if I end up machine quilting the rest of it.

So, now that I'm running out of lemons (a.k.a. time), I'm much more motivated to complete this project.

And after last night's storm, we were treated to a huge rainbow this morning.

Funny how that works, isn't it?  

Old Year, New Ventures

Well, folks, here we are at the end of 2011, and it can't come soon enough for me.  It has not been a good year for our family in several aspects.  However, one good thing that did happen is that our granddaughter is now living with us.

Emily came here to NJ to visit us at the end of her school year in Oklahoma at the end of May.  The plan was for her to visit us for 10 weeks, and then return to Oklahoma.  However, she ended up imploring us to not make her go back (a number of things were involved in this).  So, we kept her with her dad's permission.  We registered her for school, and started getting her settled into her new "digs."  Since then, she and I have worked together off and on, making small quilts, pillow cases, pajama pants, sock creatures, tote bags, and even a fancy apron from a commercial pattern.

As soon as she started making new friends, her friends wanted to learn how to sew, too.  So now whenever they visit, or she has a sleepover, they all end up in my studio, pulling out scraps of fabric and attempting to hand sew them together.  At this point I have not had a chance to work with them on any specific projects, but I can see that it won't be very long before we'll get started on this new venture.  Don't get me wrong - they're great kids, and I enjoy having them here.  But at my age, it doesn't take very long for my "batteries" to start running down!

By the time they head out, my studio is even more of a disaster than it was when they arrived - fabric strips and scraps everywhere, tools out of place, and just a chaotic mess.  But if it means they're interested in learning how to sew, how can I complain?

After all, it gives me something to look forward to in the new year.

Something Old, Something New

Well, folks, here I am in the blogosphere.  The day after Steve Jobs passed away.  After being one of the original users of the Apple II.  Ironic, don't you think?  Pretty amazing journey Mr. Jobs made.  Just goes to show you, you don't necessarily need a college degree just to prove you're smart, y'know?
Nowadays it's more about finding unique ways to innovate and scratch out a living.  Huge kudos go out to those who are occupying Wall Street to express their frustration at how it's all turned into the "haves" vs. the "have-nots."  How anyone can justify not asking the rich to chip in their fair share is beyond me.  Sometimes I think the Republicans should change their logo to a Hippo - for their hypocrisy.  Just saying.
Anyway, got lots to do so I'd better get scratching.
Have a good day!