two to remember

Last weekend was the Belle Point Quilt Guild's

biennial quilt show.

It was the 3rd time I've gone to the show,

and the first that I entered any quilts.

I entered two for display only,

and one to be judged.

I reasoned that it was pretty sound

technique-wise,

and the quilting wasn't too shabby,

so I was hopeful that I'd get some helpful comments from the judge(s)

regarding what I could improve

so I could

maybe someday

earn a ribbon.

Well, Y'all!

I earned a ribbon!!

A third place ribbon!

The comments weren't all that helpful, though.

There were two;

one said my stitch in the ditch needs to stay in the ditch,

and duh! of course it does.

And while I didn't SiD perfectly,

I'm not sure that I could do much better

on a good sized quilt

with a domestic machine,

especially one not built into a table.

(I happened to notice that the 2nd place quilt 

wasn't stitched in the ditch,

which made me wonder if perhaps I'd have fared better without it...)

The other said that I need to 'whipstitch my corners.'

Now,

this one ticked me off a bit,

because,

y'all know how I am about my binding corners,

and I had sewn them,

I just did it invisibly.

In addition to that ribbon

(and the $10 prize money that went along with it)

I got another surprise;

an even better one!

My friend had made a quilt for us

 as a housewarming gift,

and she presented it to me

by hanging it in the show!

There I was, just browsing the quilts,

and bam!

there was my last name - hanging on the wall

on a beautifully quilted 

(almost whole-cloth) quilt

with a blue ribbon pinned on it.

She used bamboo batting and a lawn backing

because she knew I loved both,

and quilted in a verse,

and our names.

She despises handwork, 

so couldn't bring herself to add any,

but she outlined the pieced letters in black,

to give it a similar look.

I'm so so tickled with her lovely, thoughtful gift!

And I currently have not one,

but two

award-winning quilts in my home.

(though as soon as those darn razorbacks straighten up,

I need to sell that one...)

curvy Christmas kingfisher

I decided last Christmas

that it would be festive

to (eventually) have a ton of Christmas quilts,
now that, you know - we'll have room for them.

I'm not one to change decor

- or anything -

all that often,

so they'd have to be not so Christmasy 

that they'd need to be put away by Jan 1st,

'cause in all likelihood,

these babies would be out from the day after Thanksgiving

through at least February,

maybe even longer.

When I got back to sewing in March,

after not sewing for 2 1/2 months,

I started making patchwork forest trees

as my leader/ender project.

When I cut my fabrics into the 9x11 pieces

that I'd use to make the trees,

I also cut another 9x11 piece of each fabric.

My thinking was that I could sell this custom bundle

to somebody who adored my quilt,

but didn't want to spend the time and money that I had

to amass fabrics.

(not that I spent a ton of money mind you, (Honey)

but buying a bunch of fat sixteenths

is a whole lot cheaper 

than buying a bunch of fat quarters and half yards,

no matter what kind of a sale you got them on)

In mid-May, Rachel announced a Summer stitch-a-long.

While I liked the quilt,

I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with the pace,

especially since our vacation wouldn't fall

 in the 8 weeks of the sew along,

and there was a lot of hand-stitching involved.

(and remember, we are still building a house,

so sewing time is limited!)

Plus - I already have a kazillion quilts on my to-make list.

Two weeks later,

my pre-ordered copy of Florence's book,

Flossie Teacakes Guide to English Paper Piecing

arrived.

By the time I'd finished chapter one

(which is worth the price of the book, in my opinion!)

I decided that I would join the Kingfisher Stitch Along

after all.

And I would use those fabrics that I had already cut

into 9x11 pieces!

Those fabrics had already been chosen to make a Christmas quilt,

why not use them for another Christmas quilt too??

I scurried around and collected more coordinating fabrics,
(there are 99 in this quilt)

and ordered 300 1" hexagon papers

and on June 5th,

I started prepping hexies using barely diluted liquid starch.

Two weeks later,

my dad had a horrible freak accident

and ended up with a severe spinal cord injury,

and died 8 days later.

And it turned out,

that English Paper Piecing was a saving grace to me.

I could force myself to work on just a few flowers a day.

No thinking was required,

as I'd already had my fabrics ready.

I prepped hexies,

and I sewed them together.

repeat.

repeat.

repeat...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When I decided to join the stitchalong,

I started thinking that,

since this was to be a Christmas quilt,

wouldn't it be cool if instead of diamonds,

my background fabrics were in the shape of ornaments??

Ornaments would be especially fitting, 

since we give our children a special ornament each year....

I couldn't get it out of my head,

so I searched and searched for a quilt pattern 

with an interlocking ornament shape 

that wasn't pieced.

I figured I could adjust the size to suit my 9x11 pieces of fabric.

No such thing exists

(or if it does, I sure didn't find it)

so I set out to make my own.

After lots of trial and error

(I could get my shapes to almost fit together perfectly,

but not quite.)

I consulted with my engineer/mathematician son

and he told me that there was a formula

(of course there was...)

and that the curves needed to change directions
exactly midway horizontally.

With this new info,

I was able to draw a properly interlocking ornament shape

without too much trouble

and then add 1/4" seam allowance all the way around.

I had sewed 4 'ornaments' together to test my shape

the day before our world changed forever.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After I had the all hexies at least prepped,
over the course of a week,

I heavily starched the background fabrics.

Folded them in fourths and pressed them again.

And then cut them out.

I machine applique'd each hexi flower
to it's background with black thread,
after adding an extra layer of batting
to each center hexagon.

Repeatedly,

I found myself so grateful that I had joined this sew along;

all I had to do,

was the next thing.

The stitching soothed my broken heart,

just a little.

And I was making something beautiful.

Eventually,

the 'next thing'

was sewing all those darned curvy ornament shapes together

and that was absolutely no fun at all.

There was a lot on unsewing 

and re-sewing 

involved, too.

There are quite a few not-perfectly-matching seams in this quilt;

if couldn't get it right in 3 tries,

it was deemed good enough.

After completing the top,

I added 50/50 wool & cotton batting
(which was it's own little nightmare!)

and a lovely (but slightly weird) Liberty of London lawn backing

(my first Liberty fabric!! that stuff is sooo expensive)

and quilted on my home machine.

I bound it by machine with the same striped vintage sheet

I used to test my ornament shape

(which I then used in the quilt, obviously)

Though tinged with great sadness,

this quilt also holds wonderful memories for me.

There is no doubt in my mind that God Himself 

orchestrated my participation in this sew-a-long.

Stitching truly is therapuetic for me,

and this is not the first season of my life

where sewing has played a huge role in healing.

(It's why I donate sewing machines to Rahab's Rope..)

When all I wanted to do was sit in a chair
and stare off into space

and/or cry

I sewed.

Just a little bit.

To try to keep up with the sew along.

 I'd post pictures on Instagram

and everyone was so encouraging and lovely,

and I made a few new friends.

The season that Curvy Christmas Kingfisher was made in

 was awful,

and while this quilt holds many tears,

it mostly holds gratitude.

For the gift of sewing.

For the gift of sewing friends,

and mostly for the gift 

of that precious last week with my dad.

Curvy Christmas Kingfisher will be on display
at the Belle Point Quilter's Guild quilt show
if you would like to see it in person.

that time I trusted my gut

Do you remember 

back when we had our house plans drawn up,

and our draftsman

was quite adamant

that we should not put our stove in the island,

but I was quite positive

that was exactly where I wanted it??

I was so right.

just checking in

gorgeous bouquet Tyler gave me for our 31st anniversary 💗

It's surprisingly hard to write a blog post

when one hasn't written one in awhile.

I've started - and deleted - posts 

more then a couple of times

but two of my boys 

have requested a new post 

in the last few days,

so here we are.

It's been a rough couple of months,

not going to lie,

but we are all doing alright.

We took some time off from  TaeKwonDo,

but started up again this month.

We renewed our library card.

Brandon bought a car,

earned his Associate Degree

(and therefore a pretty sweet scholarship)

and moved into Christian Campus Housing.

Work is Crazy for Tyler.

positively nuts.

He is (literally) doing 2 people's jobs:

his own, and another manager's 

who was put on a special project temporarily.

The girls make so many messes work on craft projects 

all the time.

I don't know where they get that from.... ;-)

I made a couple of swimsuits

and we went to the beach.

I picked up drivers manuals.

Because I have another child 

old enough to get his permit,

and another one who will be

in the blink of an eye.

(I am so not looking forward to teaching 4 more kids to drive)

We started our 19th(!) year of home schooling.

I still don't have all of our books.

But I actually turned in our Intent to Homeschool form

over a week before it was due.

Lexi got to go to her first Razorback game

it's too bad she wasn't more excited about it...

Sadly the Hogs are sucking sooooo bad right now;

Tyler says I will probably need to wait til next year

to sell the quilt,

and I think he's probably right. 

Lily has moved up to Youth Group,

and Jeremiah is in high school.

That's enough for today, right?

I'll try to get back to posting more frequently

and in the meantime,

you can catch up with us

(or at least my sewing)

over on the Instagram

if you're so inclined.

heartbroken

I don't really feel like posting.

I don't really feel like doing anything, actually,

but I do need that last post's title to move down the page.

Because it's sort of a lie.

Time

is no longer marching on

for my dad.

Two weeks and two days ago,

his C2 was fractured

- which injured his spinal cord -

when the orchard ladder he was on

collapsed.

He was completely paralysed

and couldn't breath without a ventilator.

The most common problem

for someone who survives his injury,

is pneumonia and ARDS,

and then heart failure

due to the stress on the lungs

and/or the treatment to remove fluid and phlegm.

Dad developed ARDS Tuesday

and by Wednesday evening,

he was gone.

Our pastor asked Tyler and I if we saw Jesus at the hospital.

And we did.

So many times.

But I am way too worn out to record them,

so we will just hold them in our hearts.

Our very broken hearts.

We love you, Dad. So much.

~

Here is the tribute (mostly written by the middle brother)
that my siblings and I read at his memorial service,
if you care to read it.
And his life in pictures, reduced to a 5 minute song.

time marches on

My mom and Bill are moving Gramma Joyce

into a swanky nursing home tomorrow.

It's time.

It's actually past time;

she probably should've moved a year and a half ago.

Even so,

I feel quite sad about it.

For Mom. 

For Gramma.

For me.

For all of us.

I didn't expect that.

Razorback Fan

Immediately upon finishing

the Block of the Day quilt,

I sat down and drew up a quilt 

that's been in my head for quite some time.

Then I went on a fabric collecting spree.

digging through every box, shelf, bag, and tub

that even might contain a red, black, or gray fabric.

I amassed a ridiculously large pile boxful,

having previously made

a red quilt,

a gray (and black) (with purple) quilt,

another gray (and blue) quilt,

and a black and white quilt,

and, oh, another quilt that heavily featured gray.

I've made a block here 

That churndash in the upper right didn't make the cut. Not enough contrast.

and a block there,

yes! I found the perfect spot for a bit of Jenean Morrison's fabric :-)

and cut background strips

 when I had a couple of decent chunks of time

(I spent 4 hours just cutting all those suckers!)

Once I had my little design wall filled up,

I made a real (expandable!) design wall

and threw everything up on it,

very neatly arranged the blocks on it

and realized - 

I still had a (very) long way to go!

 I made more blocks every chance I got,

and sewed some together with their background strips.

Sometimes I only had 5 minutes at a time,

sometimes an hour or more.

Then I sewed some more blocks,

and some more pieces together,

and here we are,

3 weeks later,

with a finished
one of a kind
Razorback Fan quilt top!!

There are 122 fabrics

and 52 hours (and 46 minutes) represented
in this 66" x 78" top.

That 52:46 doesn't count any of the hours spent 

designing the quilt

(or any of the blocks that I drew up  myself).

It doesn't include the hours spent gathering fabric,

or driving out to Mulberry in search of actual  Razorback fabric.
(which, incidentally, is rather ugly until you chop it up)

that embroidered white patch was commissioned from a friend :-) and the pink razorback fabric is from Stars for a Star :-)

It doesn't include the time spent
prewashing any fabrics that might bleed
(I'm looking at you, ugly razorback fabric!)

or choosing fabrics for each individual block

(it takes longer than you might think)

That big block is an 'Arkansas Star' - I couldn't find one the size I needed,
and didn't trust my maths to enlarge it and get it just right, so I drafted it myself.
It's paper pieced. Foundation Paper Pieced. Y'all know how much I love that 😏

or re-folding the fabric

after I've cut what I need from it

(when you use over 100 fabrics,

and cut fabric for each block as you make it

 that adds up to a lot of folding)

and it definitely doesn't include time spent

standing in front of the design wall,

pondering.

I will say,
I like it better when I don't know
quite how much time I spend on a project 😉
but
Razorback Fan
 will be for sale as soon as I get it finished
so it seemed prudent to keep track.

I'm eager to get to the quilting;
I've already got a pretty good idea
of what I'm wanting to do.

joining Amanda Jean and the other finishers