Friday, May 30, 2014

Family, Quilters Connection Quilt Show and 60th birthday!

Wow
A very busy week, a very busy life, a very busy family and friends! You know, it is hard to be, really be, a family member, especially ours. We love each other, help each other and the most important thing a family is and does, is be there for each other. It takes time, money to travel and it takes a special person to recognize that a family is a living thing and, a great family, as mine is, knows that, appreciates that we are given a gift of love and family. You are there everyday, every event, you go out of your way to realize that family takes precedence over everything. Personal ills and or conflicts, and trust me there are conflicts! I call our family, the PACK! Wolves run in a pack and we are not wolves but we are strong and aggressive and all of us need time that needs to be spent in the best possible way as we are too busy. They can be wonderful when pushed to the limit! Family must come first! So thank you to everyone who came to my 60th birthday!!! To some of those, who could not make it, I understand. Life interferes. Some did not want to come to celebrate and that we could understand.

Who gets a quilt cake, awesome quilt cake at their birthday! ME!

Next are my many hairdos and may party!



Now to the Quilters Connection Quilt Show! I hope some of you have the opportunity to come to our art quilt show as it is awesome! I designed the layout and the design of the show so if you hate it or have issues let me know. If you loved it let me know! It takes a lot of work to put on a quilt show and my part took at least 40 hours of time to determine the amount of quilt racks we need, as this costs your guild money, and also, in this facility, of multiple floors, where is it going and how it all looks in the end. We had 50 extra quilts and 2 less rooms and I think it looks great! Biased of course! Think of all the work the Quilt show Chair did, publicity which is crucial and the quilters themselves, up against a deadline to finish their quilts! My family comes to all my events and I am so glad my grandchildren look forward to the picture puzzles, given at this quilt show, to help them look for items in our quilts that are listed. If quilters want parents with children to come, all should give them a fun activity to do and as a docent in a museum, It helps them look at the pieces and helps all to really see them!

I have 1 quilt and 2 garments, already tagged in a previous Blog. I have not sewn much since my knee surgery as this takes more than 3 months to have all back to sewing mode but I did make a Selvedge bunny that may look like something else, so I billed it as a Selvedge Animal for a charity auction to raise funds for numerous textile non profits. You know, we are all luck we have museums, and event like quilt shows, local quilts shops, local markets and store and many events offered in your community but if you do not support them, attend then they will disappear and you will miss them! They need your support to continue as do charities but giving to your community to keep it vibrant is everything!


Like I said a busy week! I must say I did hit the wall after the 60th party, revived by the QC Quilt show and will crash again and then have the Fitchburg Art Museum Docent end of the year party, which every time I host it, it rains and is very cold, in June. No one has ever seen my awesome view!


Quilters husbands are an amazing group and mine is the Macgyver of all! He can plan a quilt show, hang it and take it down! Now, all is not perfect as a lot of negative words can and are directed but he does it again and again and now tells me never again! Boo whoo, we will work on that!


We will work on a lot of thing especially getting back to sewing and stuff. Life is not worth value unless you push yourself to do it all, sometimes at your expense, but it is so worth it in the end! I now I live that way and am so blessed!

Love Jessica

Monday, May 26, 2014

Pray for a Veteran and honor those who have gone before

My father was a WWII Air Force Corporal, a Veteran, who was shot down, as a bombardier, over Poland in 1944. He had just married my mother and did not know she was pregnant and she was told he was MIA. He landed in a tree, followed a young girl to her home, displayed his Crucifix, praying they were Catholic,so they could help him, which they did. He ended up in the Russian Army and came home in time for my sister Lynda's birth. He wrote about his story and almost had a television program about his time in the war on "Twelve O'Clock High" but he died right before he signed the contract. He was also going to redo his steps with his flight crew in Poland but died.. He died 25 years to the day that he returned to my mothers surprise and birth of my sister. I have his pictures, his story and war momentous but I was too young to ask what he did in the war as he died when I was 13. I go to cemeteries because it proved they lived, not died. I see no death there only life eternal.

I just watched "Memorial Day" on TV and at the end he says he was thankful that someone forced him to to talk about his war days as the stories live on and can help those moving forward in this strange and changing world we live in.
To all who are serving, have served or who have memorials to their lives, I say thank you!!!!!! Thank you for your service, making my life better and safer, but thanking you because you care enough to do that.

I was given a 60th birthday party this weekend by my wonderful family. All families should be like mine. We are there for each other, help each other, see each other, go out of our way for each other and celebrate the good and bad times together. Whether they are friends or true blood they will move heaven and earth to be there for you, not talk about it or be selfish about it whatever there lives may hold, they are just there and MINE is and was!
I am so thankful.



So everyday we are to be there, in person, to help the ones we love. No excuses when it comes to family, ever. No matter what turmoil your life is in there are people out there you can connect and just be there for them. We all have stuff in our lives, whether true or imagined, but family is constant. I miss my father every day and think about him and my mother, who I talk about in my Selvedge Queen speaker program. I thank them daily for the good and negative they may have instilled in me. I wish for one more day with them so I can ask them stories of their lives.

Be brave, ask your loved ones for some stories……
Jessica

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A Great Fundraiser!


HI

Tonight I was co-auctioneer at the North Parish Quilters guild who had 70 of the most spectacular bags I have ever seen filled with stuff! They also held a Silent Auction and a flea market table and refreshments loaded into, BAGS! There were family members modeling, many other members of other guilds were invited and all of us had a wonderful time and I got 2 great bags, one signed by Nancy Zeiman!

If your guild needs money, participation, new members or just want to have fun, try this!!! I am sure they will be doing this in the future as it was great!

Another guild, Quilters Connection will be having their quilt show May 30 to June 2 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Ma. Check out www.quiltersconnection.org for times and events. We will be having a Silent Auction to benefit assorted charities among them New England Quilt Museum and the Textile Museum in Lowell, Ma plus others. Come and say hello and if you are wondering who I am, I am the one dressed up!!!!!

I will post pictures soon!

Jessica

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Mother's Day happy to all!

Happy Mothers Day to all whose Mothers are here or not and to all who are Mothers themselves!!!! My Mother, THE MEMERE, that is what we all call her, is missed but never forgotten. It has been over 10 years but every time I do my Selvedge Queen speaker program, she is there in quilts and in my appearance! Oh yes, the saying, "Mirror, mirror on the wall I am my mother after all" is true and alive in me and possible my daughter, Marisa! Not a bad thing just an eccentric thing!

We all have things in our life that are, not normal, so what is normal and why would we want to be that?

I have done my talk in 3 states, over 1000 miles in the last month. Thank you all for allowing me to strut my stuff as I make you "strut, my stuff"!

I am going to another state, NH, June 11, 2014 to the Cheshire Quilt Guild and I am always surprised at the different reactions to my show. Mostly, while I set up, people ask what is going on and do I wear this clothing?!. Then I ask them to model the trunk show and sometimes no one responds. So I have to lean against the table and say that the majority of my show is in the suitcases in front of them and if they don't help well…….. Never had to answer that question as once the first coat and model come out everyone wants to participate. A great way to include everyone in the process. I know I have trouble sitting through a slide show presentation with a speaker reading from her notes. I wear hearing aids and I need to be engaged, otherwise, I tune it out! Sorry!

I curated a quilt show with the Material Girls Quilt Guild of Leominster, Ma last weekend at the Fitchburg Art Museum during that annual Art in Bloom weekend and I must say the quilts and the floral displays complemented the museum and our guild. Showing your quilts at quilt shows and different places gives your guild recognition in your community and, also, to the quilter who has designed a wonderful quilt that needs to be seen! I am really sad when I go to a guild that has canceled their quilt show because of lack of volunteers. My own guild is also in jeopardy! We need to show how diverse quilters are and also validate that this is an art form worth pursing, We need to engage our younger generation to start quilting so that this art form, of pure personal expression and choice, has continuity! I also interpreted a photo from a revolving show of an orange on a carrot representing a man and his toupee.!!!!!

Please, when your President asks and needs volunteers, say yes!!!! The only difference between you and the President of your guild is that she did say yes!!! I always volunteer first as I get to choose what I will do, knowing I will do something! So much better to just say yes, NOW! I will be doing an auction for a guild I just spoke to and they asked me to return and help them make money. You need money to get wonderful programs, like me, HA! so that members get engaged and bring others to help increase your skill level, to inspire you , teach you and to get new members. None of that happens without money!

Please volunteer. Come to the Quilters Connection Quilt Show the first weekend in June, date and website posted under my calendar! Go to other quilt shows and show your support and also spend money at local quilt shops and vendors, what would we do without them!!! Be inspired and you will be inspired!!!
Until next time.
Jessica

I thought I would post a Mothers Day picture from my past, possibly 25 years ago of the Memere, moms and future moms!