Quilt or rake?

Well, the weather has been so wonderful that I am torn between quilting and raking. I have just done both. Sew in the morning and rake a while in the afternoon then sew some more. I am still working on UFO's and have finished another Petal Swap quilt used all the selvedgesand just found a box of leftover 2" and ranom witdh cuts and I am making strata to cut into blocks. This will make a lot of new fabric from the usable throwaway strips after a project is done. Remember recycle! I did 2 Selvedge Queen talks and will do a workshop on Saturday on Hack and Sew and Collage. It's also the season on Quilt Show, so off to be inspired!

Selvedge fabric

Well, I couldn't stand the laundry basket full of Selvedges so I used them up!  That's right, all of them.  I did throw some of the very narrow out but I was amazed at how beautiful they look when sewn in a rag rug in a previous post or this one that may turn into a bag!

rag rug or bag

The remaining selvedges I stripped pieced into  eighteen 11 1/2" squares and trying to use up the left over batting, given to my by my favorite Longarm quilter Kathryn, more strips.  I have enough to make a quilt or a jacket or one of each!

Selvedges!

more

all used!

What? huh?

I have a carved Santa made by Uncle George that is dressed in "lakewear:" and he is seriously considering my latest projects!

I have also been making animals, so far 2 elephants and  2 bears out of reproduction Kente Cloth for an upcoming exhibit at the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Kente Elephant

Need to finish something that I am supposed to finish instead of  playing with other stuff.

WHAT have you finished?

Well, Valentine's Day has come and gone and husband gone again.  I went out with another wife whose husband is out of the country on Valentine's Day.  My husband did bring flowers and card and maybe I will get a bauble too on his trip home! He has always traveled and probably has been home for 5 Valentine's Day in 38 years of marriage!

 I have been busy working on my UFO's.  I finished the chicken bag, the Twists and Twirls bag, the Marci Baker " Tiny Boxes" open Tumbling Blocks quilt, used all the 1/2 square triangles and 3/4 of the Petal swap, although they are not completely quilted yet!  I got distracted by all the Selvedges I have and felt I should do something with them as I do bill myself as the Selvedge Queen.

As you can see from the pictures I made a rag rug on a Locker Loom that my husband built for me last summer.  All Selvedges!  Thank you to all who added to my stash but especially to Sylvia Einstein because she gave me 10 years of selvedges from all over the world and some are quite exciting!

I always tell people what I like and what they could give me if they find some when cleaning out their houses.  I have gotten the fabric for the blinds, Selvedges, an antique Crazy quilt Fan design quilt top from the 1900's, an offer of beads from a mother- in -law;s broken necklaces, all this month! Think of me when cleaning as if it a textile, button, beads, or strange I want it!

I am also cutting up batting that a long arm quilter, Kathryn Amadom, hire her as she is the best, gave me! Anyway, she recycles her leftover batting and I have used it to put 3 small quilts together and also to zigzag stitch down some of these selvedge to an 11 1/2 square of batting.  It doesn't even look like I have used any so I guess I will have to make more!

Check out where I am giving my talk and come and see me!

Jessica

Quilted Friends!

Friends know what friends like and also how to give.  Friends keep other friends in mind when they receive a gift that may not be perfect for them but perfect for another friends.  In my case it was a QC quilting friend who had a friend bring her fabric from Africa.  While not perfect for her she knew it was perfect for another and so she passed it onto, another friend.  I am so happy about this that I too will pass something along to another so that they too will have a surprise in their quilting life!

I made 2 Roman shades with this fabric that matched my decor and esthetics's!  My husband had placed one of my quilts in front of the French doors of our camp entrance and while this kept the heat in and the cold breezes, that whip across the lake, out, it did not solve the issue entirely!  Everytime you wanted to go outside the quilt fell on your head because 1 big quilt across 2 French doors meant a hassle everytime the door opened.  The shade and fabric solved our problem beautifully.
So keep a friend in mind the next time you have or are given something that may be passed along.   We should all pass something on, whether it is good wishes or something else. Just do it!
Jessica

Time to revisit

Happy days when something gets done!  It does not matter what but something is better than sitting all day watching musicals and TV and nothing else. 
I received 2 notes today telling me they enjoyed my "Selvedge Queen" talk for CPQG.  I m thankful for the notes and so thankful to be a quilter.  I  you don't tell someone how you feel or whether you were "moved" than you never know if someone understood what you were trying to say.  My mother always said when something "moved her", more often when it didn't!  I decided I needed more FACEBOOK friends and now I am connected with long distance relatives and other quilters who have  sent me comments.  Reach out and touch, for sure.  We once got our daughter a cat and we had always called our cat "BOOFY" but this one she said "No, Poppy, For Sure" and I asked if that was the name and she said it was Poppy , For Sure!

I am revisiting my UFO's and updating what I am doing, more for me than well others,..and here are the UFO's, some winners


2 years Crazy Quilt  Blocks
2 red work hand embroidered pieces
Strata for Louise Smith and  Ami Simms classes
Elinor Peace Bailey pocketbook started DONE combined with another UFO
3 years Petals swap, 1 year used
2 years 1/2 Square swap, all used to make 3 tops as backgrounds for petals
Italian Floors paper pieced quilt
Greek door quilt  from a class
Secrets Quilt
Friendship Blocks 2 guilds Swap
Faces of me Friendship Block
Landscape  from Pam Druhen class to be stitched and quilted
Linda Warren Moon class top to be completed
3 Jackie Patton class stenciled pieces
Naughty Elves  Crayon quilt needs to be hand quilted
5 piece Asian panel Strip Robin
Tent lady? Fusible Applique class
Hand appliqued Snowman pillow top created by daughter
Leaves Friendship Blocks
2 hand painted pieces in QC  Jennifer Beavin class
Hand embroidered Chicken blocks leftover from a jacket
Hand applique Chickens a BOM from quilt store
Quilters Way BOM that I can't figure out the ruler!

Whirly Windmills blocks seminar from a getaway for Quilter's Connection (correction) DONE with Elinor Peace Baily in a Cicken Getaway Bag
Japanese Lanterns leftover from quilt, quilt blocks
Sylvia's Einstein class mystery blocks (A mystery to me)
Marci Baker class  top to  bequilted
Halloween quilt, Hack and Sewn!, needs verbage and quilting
Grandson's  4th Birthday Quilt  DONE
another day another UFO

the morning after........

Well, my talk for my quilt guild, Concord Piecemakers, went great and it was easier than I thought to speak to people you know.  They laughed and smiled and wore my coats with aplomb, even if some did put them on backwards and inside out!  Check out the pictures.

There are always words I wanted to say but forgot as I really don't have a  prepared speech and just talk.  One of the most important things my mother, The Memere, said as I was growing up is you need to get dressed everyday so why not choose something nice instead of sloppy or unattractive.  You need to put it on so take a moment and choose something that makes you feel great!

Another comment I forgot to say was one my husband tells me, when I complain I have a deadline or too much to do, he says I could get up everyday and do nothing, that I should look in  the mirror and "see my enemy, it is me".  We do control what we volunteer to do or what quilts we start but how boring would it be to wake up everyday and have nothing to do.  I am a firm believer in giving back to my community, as a Selectman, on the Zoning Board and assorted Building committees in the past and the currently  Fitchburg Art Museum.  Love that place and hope all come to visit.  I also believe that family comes first, always no matter how much that may interfere with your plans.

Also, people wonder what my husband thinks of my "outfits".  The first time I wore one he thought I should not go out in it.  We were going to the Paradise City Art Show that comes 4 times a year to the area.  After the 20th person asked where my booth was, he decided he should make business cards so I could sell them!  Ha!  Now if I go to business function with him, he only wears button down collared Brooks Brothers shirts, pleated cuffed pants and wing tips or loafers in brown and black, and I look "normal",  he tells me to change as he has told people his wife is coming in her weird garments and they would be disappointed if I look normal.  What's normal anyway!

another morning.........
Jessica

Getaway, life!

I went to a quilt getaway with Concord Piecemakers Quilt Guild, CPQG, last weekend which is 11 miles from where I live!  What fun, what UFO's almost completed, what a wonderful sound, machines humming and friends laughing!  Thanks, Marian!  I bought a new SewEZI table and love, love, love it and everyone who takes workshops or goes to getaway needs one!

I was able to find all my projects because of my studio cleanup and I was able to put the neatly folded fabric back when I was done.  I started my "Hack and Sew"  quilt titled "A Family Confrontation/Conversation" with Alexander Henry fabrics from their Holloween collection and I am planning to write subtitles for what the characters are saying, using family dialog!  What dialog!?  Most of us are deaf and the others wish they were!

I am the guest speaker at CPQG this week.  What pressure as it is harder to do this for people you know than strangers because they know you, my quilts, have heard some of the stories and expect me to be funny all the time!  Pressure!

My latest "Hack and Sew"  project about the family will include 2 years of 1/2 square triangles and 3 years of Dresden petals swap from Material Girls quilt guild and so the UFO's will be crossed off the list.  My latest challenge to ones self is writing down my current list of UFO's which are:

I think we should all, be truthful, count our UFO's and put the number in a Blog or email.   All of those swaps, class projects, baby blanket for first grandchild, now 6, started, but hated it, (give that one away,) all of those Friendship blocks, crazy quilt squares and any other thing that is stopping you from  just doing it!.   Then, instead of competing against one another , we compete against ourselves.  If you have done a  piece work type of job in the past, (I made sunglasses,) the only way to get through the day was by making more than you did the day before.  This time we are finishing more quilts and freeing up space, than we have ever tried to do in the past.
Keep me posted on how many completed and we will have a built in cheering and crit group all year long.  I will count mine today!
 ......and here are the UFO's, some winners
Ok I have these UFO;s, never mind the USO's that are incoming always!
2 years Crazy Quilt  Blocks
2 red work hand embroidered pieces
Strata for Louise Smith and  Ami Simms classes
Elinor Peace Bailey pocketbook started
3 years Petals swap, 1 year used
2 years 1/2 Square swap all used to make 3 tops as backgrounds for petals
Italian Floors paper pieced quilt
Greek door quilt  from a class
Secrets Quilt
Friendship Blocks 2 guilds Swap
Faces of me Friendship Block
Landscape  from Pam Druhen class to be stitched and quilted
Linda Warren Moon class top to be completed
3 Jackie Patton class stenciled pieces
Naughty Elves  Crayon quilt needs to be hand quilted
5 piece Asian panel Strip Robin
Tent lady? Fusible Applique class
Hand appliqued Snowman pillow top created by daughter
Leaves Friendship Blocks
2 hand painted pieces in QC  Jennifer Beavin class
Hand embroidered Chicken blocks leftover from a jacket
Hand applique Chickens a BOM from quilt store
Quilters Way BOM that I can't figure out the ruler!
Whirly Windmills blocks seminar from a getaway for  Nashua Sew and Vac
Japanese Lanterns leftover from quilt, quilt blocks
Sylvia's Einstein class mystery blocks (A mystery to me)
Marci Baker class  top to  bequilted
Halloween quilt, Hack and Sewn!, needs verbage and quilting
Grandson's  4th Birthday Quilt  DONE


As you can see I did not include any USO's like the Grandchildren names art books that are in a plastic containers
Hand dyed and Mono printed pieces
vests that need to be cut and sewn
Jackets that are in my Brain and sew many other wonderful projects wanted but yet created!

Done!