Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Speaker on Mothers 94 Birthday!

Hi
A new year, another Blog, another chance to write about myself.  What a great time we live in and also a great way to remember those came before us and may have, inspired or tortured us, to be what we are today!  I am talking about, Fleur Ange, my mother, who died 10 years ago but is always there.
I talked, now yesterday, to the Blackstone Valley Heritage Quilt Guild in Whitinsville, Ma, on her birthday and I hope I paid homage to her eccentricities, and mine, and also her weird, and mine, views on life!  Mirror mirror on the wall I am my mother after all!  Yes, I seem to be and proud of it although our relationship was a little controversial!
A guild member using selvedges!

My trunk show!

Some attendees!

Me in my usual garb, need another selvedge vest!

More trunk show.

Activities

They must model those suitcases or I am done!

Need to start writing family history on that Stack and Hack quilt of Halloween family that looks like mine!

Me as the Slevedge Queen lookalike complete with book, a tell all!
A great evening and filled with laughter, there's and mine, and almost tears from me.  Everyone should be asked to do a trunk show and gather their work.  They will see how much they have accomplished and passed on to the future.  My trunk show spans 41 years of sewing, yet there is so much more to create, always!
It is late but I always need to wind down, especially after driving 2 hour in pouring rain and fog so thick I had to drive 10 miles an hour on a a road that is 40!  All that snow we had is melting.
My mother made me, I repeat, made me sew at 9 years old because my 2 much older sisters always argued about the colors and clothes she made for them from fabric my father, who sewed and brought home remnants, in an upholstery shop,  scratchy!  Best thing she ever did for me and also a curse.  Demons make me so, sew!  No Catholic guilt, no, just plain needing to do it and create.  We are so lucky, as quilters, to be able to make anything out of simple cotton and other materials, and make it beautiful.
 My mother was a hacker and sewer like me.  Give her fabric and tell her to make something and she did, time after time.  I hate patterns and so did she.  My father could make a custom couch and did in a weekend!  My grandmother sewed and also taught me to crochet which I still do today.  A family legacy that I hope will continue through my grand children if I ever have time to teach.  When I cleaned out my mothers house when she came to live with me I found a green box.  I knew what what in that box as I had searched every nook and cranny of that house with my cousin and brother, Billy!  It was the Fruit Kids, a McCalls pattern from the 50's, and in that box was Penny Pineapple,  pin cushion, which she had made, and the rest of the fabric all cut and prepared to sew the other fruits, but my mother never finished.  I sewed the pieces that she cut and it was like sitting next to her, recreating her sewing and ideas. They were made out of an old coat that I wore when I was a child and she cut it cut up when it not longer fit.  We should all recycle, and I try, like that!
My mother was strange and weird and creative and eccentric and quiet and paranoid and remembered as "the Memere".  My 2 sisters and I all have grand children but we are memere's not, the Memere!  I hope we all remember our Memere's, Grandma, Grammie, Nana, Moma and whatever you call them as they are the reason we are here today and continue to be the special people we are or can become.
I am in the process of rearranging my sewing room, again, to be photographed for a guild, Quilters Connection in Watertown, meeting and will post pictures of that soon.  I have just finished a quilt top and back for a Great American Quilt Book of 1988 pattern that will be shown during the Material Girls Quilt Show in June, 27 and 28?, for a special exhibit, made from fabrics that were given me when I "retired" as President.  All members gave me a fat quarter and more, and I saved them and created a quilt called "Guilded Friends" for our next show.
Thank you for celebrating my mothers birthday with me!
Jessica
jeleger@comcast.net

Friday, January 18, 2013

Evaluate!

OK it is  a couple weeks into 2013 and I have not lived up to my promises!  I did work on one of my UFO's but not enough time, missed 2 meetings of  my guilds, weather and dental surgeries, but I am packed to leave to Palm Desert!   What are my priorities and why does this other stuff get in the way?  I let it!
Ok, is that good?  Yes, our life evolves at a rate we can't anticipate.  Life interfere always.  Let it.  The unanticipated is what keeps it interesting and fun!  I know, we have dreams and UFOS, daily making out lives wanting, but when the wanting comes, comes more.  There is always more that needs our attention and our interest.  I love the life that we may have tomorrow, the unexpected!
In leaving on a trip I have reservations.  Should I leave a list of UFOS that need to be finished?  Should I leave a list of my death wishes?  Will anybody anybody read this and tell my family?  I know they care but they wonder what THEIR MOTHER IS UP TO NOW!  Always keep them suspenseful.
I will finish Jocelyn and Elise's quite when I return and also make a new creation, what I don't know, for A Quilter's Gathering Quilt Show in November as I am I their Opening Night speaker with as a Fashion Show coordinator for their 25th Anniversary Fashion Show that will be great!  Everyone needs to create a wonder that will wow us!  Even me!
I am dreaming this costume and hope it lives up to my reputation.  I don't have a face or a name, not recogonised for me but what I wear, just a note that, I am the one who makes funny jackets!  Hard to believe my self has been replaced by my clothing but it is true and I don't care, as I long as I am remembered!
On a much lighter note.  I bought a new 8 thread Babylock Serger from Marie's Sewing Center in Woburn, Ma.  I have had the pleasure for 15 years to work with her, and she has had the disaster of having me as a customer.  Buy your next machine from her!!!  Through all our trials, well, mine giving her the trials, she has stood by, supported me and stood up for me when others would have run!  Run, very far and wide!  I am well known  for burning up the insides or a Juki Industrial machine, can't take sewing 15 hours daily without oiling hourly!   Also on my 5th Pfaff, Envison or Demon as I describe her!    Make sure you always pay insurance when you return your machine for repairs as people do steal them!  As what happened to number 4!  Ever been in a class with me?  No one will go to a  quilting get away and sew next to me as I rattle the table with my spend,  buy a Sew Ezi table, the best thing ever!, and leave my name as a reference, as I overwhelm you with my noise, and just plane piss you off generally!
Now, I leave for a rest, to contemplate all that IS UNDONE  and I feel renewed   I will finish what I started when I return and I will find inspiration to create a new wearable for  A Quilters Gathering!  I want you to do the same, in any order that will let you move on.  I know it is hard to reach others needs, don't.  Just reach yours, or the attainable.  Or, whatever makes you happy!
Jessica


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Now a New Year finally, is that better, hell NO!

OK, a New Year, with resolutions to be broken, but also a chance to fix all the broken parts of a body that has the spirit but not the stamina!  So I got 2 more cortisone shots is each of my knees, an improvement over the last 2!  I did weight myself but we are not going there there  now!  I finally got the abscessed tooth of 6 months removed today, pain, is all I can say after 2 hours of .....I don't want to know.  Pills have helped but protective layer has already fallen out!  I did catch up on a Material Girls Quilt Guild Inchies swap and now will catch up on television shows, maybe!
I am working on a 25 years of quilting quilt for the the Mat Girls quilt show in June, check my schedule.  I donated those books to the last quilt show, anonymously, but unfortunately there were pictures of me, with clothes on, in one the them.  Beware, check books to be donated before for names and pictures!  I was skinner then, damn!
Currently working on the 25th anniversary of quilt with fabrics  donated to me after I was no longer President of Material Girls Quilt Guild. Hard to do with all the different styles but I want to honor those who had faith in me then.  I need to finish a Marcy Baker quilt, full size, for Jocelyn my 2nd grand daughter  who loves purple and is my crazy haired purple princess!  Next is her sister's, Elise,  Karen Stone twin size quilt for the upgrades in their sleeping arrangements.  3 and 5 years old get bigger and so do their beds!
Holidays were great and so is the after holidays.  I am getting all the body parts fixed and hoping that all have a great year and healthy too!
I am trying and so shoule you!
Jessica