Joyce's Quilting (and other fiber) Adventures

I do not like embroidery

2009-12-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

I stink at it. My stitches are rotten. It's not fun. It's tedious.

So why am I currently *obsessed*?

Both of these are Rosalie Quinlan designs. :-) I'm thinking that some of this obsession is her fault - I love her stuff THAT much.

Pictures and not a thousand words

2009-03-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

I sewed something yesterday, because I wanted to, something for ME - and I love it! Okay, it's really only half a something - I need to dye more fabric before I can finish:

We went to visit babies on Sunday, finally - it seems like forever since we saw them last! Here's our pretty girl:

Here's our sweet boy with his grandpa:

And contrary to popular opinion, yes, he CAN hold his own bottle. Maybe it would be easier for him if it weren't such a goofy shape, but who am I to argue with modern technology?

These two are like my two were at this age in one way - they are as different as two children can be. I think our AlyssaBean is the wild child, and Mr. Adam is going to be Very Serious. We just can't get enough of them! :-)

relationship advice to noone

2008-10-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling very sad lately because some people who are near and dear to me are going through a tough time in their relationship. And I really don't like to give advice. And this isn't really advice, this is just something I need to say. Don't know if the right people are ever going to read this or not, but maybe someone somewhere will sometime, and it will make sense to them.

DH and I, between us, have been in some amazingly rotten relationships over the years. We've been married for six years, four months, and one day now (not that anyone's counting), and people make fun of us because we still act like newlyweds. Now that I've found my Mr. Wonderful, there's something that I understand that I don't think I understood before:

I love this man more than anyone else I've ever loved. He is an absolute treasure, the most wonderful gift, the Best Thing Ever. So I treat him like that, or at least do my best to. How do you treat your fancy car? Your expensive jewelry? Your prize rosebush? You love on it, you pamper it, you take out the trash for it, you bring it coffee in the morning, whatever. You treat it like GOLD because it is. And he treats me like a treasure, too. Because he loves me best, and so he shows it every single minute that we are together.

If you love someone, show it. Treat them like the gift they are. Love is meant to be given, not taken. Look at that person that you love, and do anything you can, right now, to make them happy. It will make YOU feel good, too. :-)

Baby quilt and deep thoughts

2008-07-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

People who know me in real life (which is probably the majority of people who read this, all three of you) probably know that I’ve been in a real funk the last few months. Or maybe they don’t know – it’s been pointed out to me several times in the last few days that I’m hard to read. And I know for a fact that I do hide some things well. I think it came from years and years of living in a truly rotten pathetic excuse for a marriage and doing everything possible to hide that fact from the world. Which I did, clearly, as so many people were so taken by surprise when the marriage ended.

But I digress.

It’s been over three months since my shoulder surgery. People who have had the same surgery and the doctors and PT people know how long the recovery from this thing is. And I'm really pleased with the recovery I’ve made so far. I’m back to swimming; I have most of my range of motion back; I’m mostly off painkillers (but nowhere near out of pain). For the two months before the surgery, I was in constant excruciating pain, too. And yes, I did slow down, but no, I didn’t take all the time I should have for my recovery, and yes, I’m back to running full tilt and pushing myself too hard. Throw in the ongoing saga with my baby boy, and I think I’ve got lots of good reasons for being in – and staying in – a real funk for so long. But I think that I’m beginning to see my way out of it now, and it wasn’t at all what I thought.

I’ve been needing to SEW.

For so many years, I’ve been really hooked on quilting. Obviously, to the point where I turned it into my business, sort of. Since opening the shop, I’ve almost entirely stopped doing my own creative work, mostly because I’m always working on something for the shop and there are only so many hours in the day. If project A will make me money and project B will only bring me joy, well, let’s face it – any hope I have of having more than fifty cents to my name when it comes to retirement is tied up in the shop. I need to work on the project that might make money. Even before my surgery, I was feeling frustrated that I wasn’t doing any of my own creative work, but I’m definitely past that now, at least for a while. Funny how not being able to do ANY sewing will get you over your lack of creativity.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been easing back into sewing. You might think that I would have been able to sew long before now, but it’s surprisingly fatiguing. Not to mention that I’ve been working at close to my normal pace, which is exhausting to both me and my shoulder, so there’s been nothing left of me at the end of the day. But I’ve been slowly getting back to it. Last week I finished the top for my grandson’s baby quilt (since he’s due August 5, I had to finish!). And then I finished off a couple of shop samples that were in progress.

The last few days, I’ve been coming home from work and FORCING myself to sew. Shop samples again, this time the quilt for this year’s Tour de Quilt in October. And I’m finding that the more I am back to sewing, the less miserable and unhappy a person I am. My dear family – I mean immediate family, DH and my two kids – have known how unhappy I’ve been lately, and they love me anyway. The rest of the world has been getting an act (mostly a pretty good one, I think). I’m hoping that I’m really in a place now where I can start to crawl out from under it again and get some balance back in my life.

Balance. That’s so much what it’s all about for me, and I’m SO incredibly out of balance. Maybe now, after sewing again for a few days, a little less out of balance. I hope so; maybe this will be the beginning of the rest of the recovery.

Finishing is still an F word

2008-07-08T04:05:00.000-07:00

I've been working with a personal organizer to get my studio into proper shape. That means going through EVERYTHING in here and sort, purging, etc. One of the things we're going is putting all my "projects" in separate boxes, and then she's going to have me make a list of all theses projects and set some kind of rules for myself about finishing. Honestly, some of these things are ridiculous - within an hour of being finished. I'm not sure I totally agree with her plan, though, when we come upon a piece of fabric and I say "I was going to make a skirt out of that," she calls it a "project." I could just put it on my fabric shelves, and then I wouldn't have so many "projects." I jokingly said to her - as we were piling projects to the ceiling - that anything I didn't finish by the end of the year, she should come and take away, and she replied that she'd be there! I don't think she was joking, so now I'm a little nervous.

But honestly, how can I in good conscience start anything new when I've got all this STUFF? Some of it I've already purged, throwing it away or donating it to Q4R. I think I may post some of it here (or maybe on the shop blog) as a giveaway (I need some readers to be able to have a giveaway, therefore the shop blog might do better).

This week, I finished two porjects that were almost there. The first is a piece I started in a class with Teri Austin four(?) years ago. All it needed was the binding! I even had the binding cut out and everything! Okay, so it still doesn't have a label or a sleeve, but at least it's bound:

The second is a pillow. This is really pathetic - the top was done, the cording was covered and sewn on, all I needed to do was make the back pieces (I do the bit that overlaps in the back, no zipper) and sew it all together. The picture is the pillow flat on my chair, since we're out of the right size pillow forms at the shop. The top is pieces of nu-suede, right side and wrong side, wrinkle, whatever, all free-motion quilted. It's not great, but I like it:

I also sewed together a top for a shop sample - no picture yet as I still need to do borders. And the blocks for my grandson's baby quilt are all pieced. Now I need to put them on the design wall and sew them together. :-)

It's nice to be sewing again. I need to finish the studio organizing. I had thought I'd work on it this afternoon, but instead I'm running away to the beach for an overnight getaway with DH. NOTHING I'd rather do than be with my honey!

Good news!

2008-06-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

I finally got a letter from my baby boy today. I didn't know if they'd allow him to write in this weirdo "we control your kid and you don't get to see him for thirty days" place, but he did. And he says he's okay, that it's nowhere near as bad as he expected. He's reading and drawing a lot, and those are good things.

This is one seriously relieved Mama here. :-)

Finally - some show and tell!

2008-06-03T03:58:00.000-07:00

The baby girl and I took some self portraits yesterday:

Super Villain Quiz

2008-05-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

Your results:
You are Mystique

Mystique		52%
Poison Ivy		48%
The Joker		44%
Mr. Freeze		43%
Green Goblin		40%
Magneto		38%
Venom		36%
Lex Luthor		34%
Catwoman		34%
Dr. Doom		33%
Riddler		32%
Apocalypse		29%
Kingpin		29%
Dark Phoenix		25%
Two-Face		16%
Juggernaut		8%

Sometimes motherly, sometimes a beautiful companion, but most of the time a deceiving vixen.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

I did something!

2008-05-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Two of my (gazillion) short term goals are to get back to doing some creative work of my own (not just samples for the shop) and post them here. I've been doing the random post, but not ever about any creative work because I just don't do any. I'm as tired of hearing myself whine about this as I'm sure the rest of the world is tired of listening to it, but my shoulder HURTS. This recovery is long and painful, and the trip slowed me down. The arthritis in my thumb joints has recently gotten very LOUD, too - will ask the doc about that on my next shoulder visit.

I predict that the people who text all the time will suffer arthritis in their thumbs at a very young age. That is NOT why my thumbs hurt.

I digress. So, yesterday I played with setacolors. Tested sunprinting on silk with nothing but a lamp and it worked just fine. These were actually samples for the shop, but it was something more creative and fun. Also did some resist painting on silk on Friday night during the PJ party but seem to have lost my touch - not sure what I'm doing wrong. Anyway, since the camera isn't here I'll have to post photos later, but I can at least say - I DID SOMETHING!

home again

2008-05-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

We are finally back from Quilt Market in Portland after 21 hours of travel. The airline industry is right up there on the top of my Badly Run Systems, next to the county "juvenile justice system." Max was finally moved to RDC on Monday; apparently the Important Person who has needed to sign his paperwork since April 24th finally got around to it. Funny how it only took them two days to send the $200+ bill for court costs.

I'm so glad to be home, so tired, so overwhelmed with work to do. But first, allergy shot, physical therapy, and then maybe some rest. And one of these days, I think I'd like to try my hand at sewing something....

Poppies

2008-05-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

Deb R's Daily Art Thang makes we desperately want to grow poppies again. This year I'm attempting to get back to gardening a little bit - which of course makes total sense when your shoulder is still very weak and pathetic and painful - but whatever.

I need poppies.

whatever

2008-05-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone ever reads this anymore. It doesn't really matter, I suppose. But just in case there's anyone out there keeping track of things, Max was sentenced to six months in the state juvenile "justice" system for his probation violations. The commonwealth attorney argued that Max is a danger to society. His sentence started on May 1, which means he should get out end of October. And we'll see what happens then.

I am four weeks post-surgery on my shoulder, and all the people who said it's extremely painful and a long recovery were right. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. No, wait - I take that back. There are some people I would wish this on. I am mostly a kind person, but there are people in this world who have hurt me and mine much more than this shoulder has, and to them, I wish lots of heartache and misery. I feel horribly guilty about it, but what it comes down to at the end of the day is karma.

Which is a natural law of PHYSICS, and that just somehow makes me feel better.

I need more painkillers/

Max

2008-03-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

I know I'm going to be explaining this a thousand times in the next few days, and honestly, I'm just so over it and just don't want to talk about it anymore.

We went to court today and Max was sentenced to an "indeterminate term" in the state juvenile justice system. What that means, according to his PO, is that next Monday he will be picked up and go to the state juvenile facility in Bon Air (just across the river from here, maybe 20 minutes away). He will remain there for 30 days (with no visitation) for every kind of evaluation known to man. At the end of that time, they will decide both where he should serve his time and how long he should serve. They group kids together with similar problems and offenses, so he will be with all the druggies, not the rapists and robbers. He will receive treatment and counseling, etc. He would go to school except that he already earned his GED while in detention last year, so hopefully there will be an opportunity for some kind of post-secondary education while he's there. The system is so overcrowded that he will likely get out early, especially if he does what he's supposed to (which he most likely will, once he moves past being angry).

He said he's done with drugs, is ready to quit, is tired of hurting his family and losing so much because of his addiction, but like the little boy who cried wolf, we've heard this all before. The judge told him - and this made me cry then and is making me cry now - that he's one of the most intelligent kids she's seen in her courtroom and he's throwing his life away for drugs. It is just so true. I believe that he believes he's ready to move forward; I don't know whether he has the skills he needs to do that yet. But it doesn't matter, because he's not coming home anyway.

His PO called me later to tell me that Max wants to file an appeal. If he does that, he will sit in Henrico detention waiting for his date in Circuit Court - a month or more that in the end won't count towards serving his sentence - and then he goes before a different judge who I believe would be crazy to overturn what the Juvenile judge sentenced him to. I think he's speaking out of desperation and anger, and I understand that. His dad will visit him on Wednesday and try to help him see reason, that this just doesn't make sense. I will visit him on Sunday and tell him the same thing.

So, in a nutshell, he will probably get something between 3 and 18 months. They can keep him past his 18th birthday if they choose to (it is in less than 6 months). If this is indeed - as his PO says - a PROGRAM that will work on his addiction issues, then I'm all for it. I am still LIVID that this system is so effed up that a kid without a license who borrows mommy's car, goes joy riding, and KILLS PEOPLE gets to walk free because he "shows remorse" while my kid gets tied up with all this legal BS because he has a DISEASE. And I tell you this - addiction is a disease, just like diabetes or asthma, and until you have lived it, you cannot begin to understand it. We do not get to choose which crappy genes we pass onto our children, and no amount of good parenting can make up for crappy genes. My parenting skills can no more save my kid from addiction than they can from diabetes. Yes, I am defensive about it, because even though I say that I couldn't save him, I keep wondering what else I could have done? And the answer is NOTHING, and if you think otherwise, well, then more power to you when you have to face the truth. And count your blessings each and every day that you DON'T have to live with an addict.

And the thing about this legal "system" (BTW, I KNOW what a "system" is, and this thing resembles a clusterf*** more than it resembles a "system") is such that you go from one date to the next to the next, always waiting and wondering. We've been counting down the days to this day, and now we have another countdown, and another and another. When will Max come home? Who knows? I will see him on Sunday and after that, when? Who knows? Pick a number and get in line and wait. This "system" has caused me so many headaches that it's a miracle I'm not addicted to painkillers. Oh, wait, maybe I am....

So on to the next countdown, shoulder surgery on April 10, 17 days from now. I can't wait; I plan to stay overmedicated as long as I can manage it.

Our Family Christmas

2007-12-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

This year we did something different that I think was just wonderful. We had a family Christmas celebration where Rick and I were the grandparents, and our kids were the aunts and uncles, and our baby girl was, well, our baby girl. We all get along very well and know how to have a good time together, and that's exactly what we did. :-)

Here are some family photos, one without the boyfriends (sorry, guys, but Max ranks higher than you) and one of just our little Alyssabean:

2007-08-22T03:46:00.000-07:00

So, I was reading my friend Kristen's blog and saw the results of her taking this quiz, and couldn't resist - I never dreamed this would be the answer I would get, too:

You Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"We saved the world. I say we have to party."

What Superheroine Are You?

A really really good day

2007-05-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was awesome. Max came home on a day pass, and it was wonderful. For the first time in a long time, I honestly feel hopeful, really hopeful, that he will indeed beat this thing and move forward and stay clean. He's been talking the talk, but yesterday I saw *good* behavior, the promise of what is, hopefully, to come. And it was so good; I feel so much relief.

On Tuesday, Max passed his GED test. He's very proud; I'm very proud. He's looking into starting at the local community college this fall, before he's even 17. He's got a future now. :-)

I am so proud of BOTH of my kids, and I love them very very much. Two very different people, with so much in common. I am so very lucky.

One more thing I want to remember

2007-05-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

The only difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement.

Pictures I took for Phoebe

2007-05-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

Sorrel in Arches National Park and a giant Lavender (or was it Rosemary?) at Newpaper Rock.

This is the cliff that we didn't fall off the edge of, and it's hard to see, but the bride is wearing crocs.

These need no explanation.

The End of Honeymoon 3

2007-05-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

I'm back in SLC, transitioning from vacation to work modes. Rick is on a plane on his way home, so I'm posting all the bits I already wrote with pictures, etc.

I hadn't written about Bryce yet. Bryce was incredible, awesome. It was a Destination. It was perfect.

I love my husband more than anyone can know, as I proved on Tuesday. He will be paying for this for a very long time. :-)

He looks much better on a mule than I do.

This is me and Rick, together, very very happy. He only left a few hours ago, but I miss him terribly already.

Yesterday we drove to SLC (okay, Rick drove - he did ALL the driving because he is a saint like that). After we checked into our hotel - with sheets that AREN'T perfumed - we went to Temple Square for a walk. Incredible, beautiful gardens! Buildings, too, but the wonderful gardens made it seem like a fairy land. Lots of pansies - my all time favorite flower - and another little purple flower that no one seemed able to tell me what it was. So hopefully someone will recognize it here and tell me.

Tuesday AM 6:55

2007-05-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Sheets shouldn't smell. They just shouldn't. I'm guessing that because our last place and this place were small B/B type places that the owners think it's a nice touch to use smelly laundry soap on the sheets. Well, it isn't. I'm in PAIN from sleeping in that bed.

Yesterday's drive was probably over 300 miles. We saw more kinds of landscapes than we could ever imagine possible. We drove through mountains where there was still snow on the ground. We stopped at an over look at a 9600 ft high summit where we could see clearly across to mountains that were over 40 miles away. We drove across the top edge of a cliff where the road dropped off either side for a distance that I don't want to even think about, but truly made my knees shake. I think they could have filmed countless episodes of Star Trek with alien planet landings in various Utah locations, and it would be more convincing than any stage set. We figure that the Star Wars movies, and the Mars Rover landing, and the Moon landing, all of them must have been filmed here. And Mordor, I swear I saw Mordor from several different angles.

We took lots of pictures, but I know that they won't tell the story of what we saw. And even though we were in a car, it was just so *good*, so quiet, so big, just endless....

The temperatures changed radically as we travelled yesterday, too. At the high overlook in the mountains it was a chilly 56 degrees. When we were walking around the ancient ruins at the Edges of Cedars State Part (or Edges of Development, as Rick nicknamed it), it was in the 80s. We saw all different kinds of plants and trees, too - forests of ponderosa pines and birches together, the birches giving the woods a ghostlike look. More shrubby rosemary and lavender, too. And now that we're here in Bryce Canyon country, the flowers planted in front of the cabins are pansies and snapdragons, just like home.

Today we will go horseback riding. I will be brave.

Sunday evening, 745

2007-05-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Exhausted. Typing in my sleep. Some random but important thoughts.

There are fences along the sides of every road. Even in area that appear as though they would not be able to support any form of life, even the lowest - there's a fence. I think they're mostly electric, too.

Another thing. There are telephone poles and electrical wires cutting across the countryside everywhere. They don't run along the sides of the main road, they go over impossible hills, and there are big high tension pole things proudly placed on the tops of cliffs. It looks like someone was bored one day and decided to electrify all the middles of nowhere.

Our rafting guide today told me that yes, Moab residents do suffer with seasonal allergies, and this is bad pollen season. So, yes, I do still need benadryl. They think it's dry here, but I sweat today, and I didn't sweat at all on our honeymoon when it topped 100 degrees every day. So it's drier than Dogtown, VA, but not that dry.

In Arches NP today, I saw many familiar plants growing wild. Rosemarys that were taller than me; lavenders that were chest high; sorrel plants by the side of the path like weeds. At the restaurant where we ate tonight, all the outdoor planters contained the same annuals we grow at home - petunias, marigolds, etc.

All these cliffs and rockfaces, and no graffiti. I think that's just amazing. Our rafting guide told us that the rednecks here sometime shoot the rocks. Bullet holes instead of spray paint. Weird.

The sky is SO blue.

Space here is so disorienting. How many square miles is Arches National Park? And how many square miles is Henrico County, or the city of Philadelphia, or Manhattan Island? How far away are those snow capped mountains in the distance - 5 miles or 10?

The hot tub is broken; that is sad.

Sunscreen makes my face hurt.

Sunday morning, 722 AM:

2007-05-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting on a bed looking out a window at Mt. Peale, still with snow on the top. We stayed at Mt. Peale Lodge last night, a B/B type place that is - you guessed it - in the middle of nowhere. Since I don't have internet access, I'm writing this in notepad to be posted to my blog later.

Yesterday morning we left Provo and started driving. I took lots of photos along the way, as the landscape kept changing and was eternal fascinating. Two things that I noticed that I tended to obsess about were that there almost always seemed to be a fence running along the side of the road, no matter how barren or hostile the landscape, and that there were telephone lines EVERYWHERE. I've got some gorgeous landscape-y type photo that proudly show high-tension towers on the top of giant mountains. Someone somewhere must be so proud.

We saw everything from fertile farmlands, valleys, to grey and brown sculpted cliffs. We went up, down, around, through mountains. Utah is BIG and incredibly varied. We saw areas of such desolation that they looked like what you imagine after a nuclear holocaust. You drive forever and ever seeing no other signs of life besides the other cars and trucks.

We finally arrived in Moab, where (we'd been warned) there was a car show. We don't know the details, except the town was FULL of people and cars, like hot rods and muscle cars and lots of motorcycles. We had lunch at a nice cafe with an outdoor section, but the whole time we were eating, we were blessed with the sounds of people revving their motors. Noisy, annoying people, noisy annoying cars. NOT why we came to Utah. Moab has a very touristy downtown anyway, lined with hotels and restaurants and trendy souvenir shops. I'm always confused when a place that people go to because of the incredible natural beauty - a place that attracts tree huggers and granola eaters - ends up being much like the strip in Virginia Beach with all it junk and gimmicks. But whatever. We didn't stay in Moab long for obvious reasons. We did visit a yarn store with lovely yarns, but nothing that I had to have (although I did get an inspiration for a felted box).

We signed up for a rafting trip for Sunday, and then we headed to our Lodge. More driving, lots of it. Some time sitting on the porch at the lodge, looking through our pictures so far, then back in the car to Canyonlands. I swear, the gauges on the maps are wrong, or I've just lost all my mapreading skills. It was way farther than we expected, but very much worth it.

First stop was Newspaper Rock, the site of some petroglyphs. Hardly any people. :-) A little tent in the parking lot where some Native Americans were selling jewelry - presents for P & M and me, too. Then more driving through incredible landscapes to the National Park. We were down to a quarter tank by then, which probably would have been plenty, but when we saw a sign for the "Needles Outpost" that they had gas, we went down a dirt road that actually takes you just outside the park border to this little store with gas pumps - $4.05/gallon - and some food and drink, and a campground. The lady there was an absolute trip and I got another cool souvenir.

Back on the road to the Visitor's Center - pretty unremarkable - and ultimately to several stops with great views and small hikes. The final stop was the best; we climbed around and explored a bit and discovered a REALLY BIG dropoff with water at the bottom. When I first looked down, my knees started to shake. But that was where we wanted to be - in the middle of nowhere, alone, no telephone poles, no people, incredible quiet but for the sounds of nature (and there aren't even many of them). I know we were at a high elevation, because I was short of breath. I *hate* that, it scares me, but even Rick was a little short of breath.

Somewhere along the drive back I invented a new hobby, "random photography." It's where you hold the camera out of the window of the moving car and point and click in the general direction of your target. That way you avoid all the slimy bug spots through the window. I took lots of pictures that way on the way back. Then we went to Monticello for dinner - another gazillion miles drive - and had a very nice dinner at the Lamplight Restaurant. Finished eating around 8:30 PM, then about a 40 minute drive back to the lodge. We were tired.

Urgent Note To Self

2007-04-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Swimming pools are a gift from the gods, and to not take full advantage of them at every opportunity is a sacrelidge. Swimming makes me feel so much better - body and soul - and I need to stop forgetting it.

Tractor lawnmowers, on the other hand, were sent by the devil - especially at 7AM on a Saturday morning. Luckily we'd already had lots of sleep before we were so blessed with the sound.

Off to Moab!

"Crop Circles"

2007-04-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

I *know* these aren't really crop circles, but I don't know what else to call them, the weird things I wrote about earlier. I found some of them on Google Earth (what an amazing thing!), but don't know how to post an easy link. The best I can do is latitude 35° 8'31.91"N, longitude 102° 9'25.11"W. Cool stuff!

Travelling to Utah

2007-04-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

As we were flying over some part of the country today - the Texas panhandle, most likely - I was thinking that it would be nice to do a travel diary kind of thing on this trip. I think writing about it will help me remember more, make me think about what touches me and why. So even though I'm seriously sleep challenged, I'm starting now.

Yesterday we started our slightly convoluted journey by driving to Norfolk, beating most of the rush hour traffic to our hotel. Then we drove in rush hour to Va Beach to pick up DSD, Theresa, to take her to dinner for her birthday (Wednesday). She wanted to go to Uno's, and we'd never been, and it was a great choice. We ate too much, strolled around the mall for a while, and did some hat shopping for me (I left my hat in my car at home). I found a cool Jack Skellington hat at the Dizzy Store. We had some good conversation with Theresa, and I think we all enjoyed it. :-)

Then we took her home and went to our hotel and tried to turn in kind of early, with alarms set for 3:30. I had been fighting a headache all day (probably day 5 of so of the damn thing), and I'd eaten too much, and the sheets smelled (scented detergents and air fresheners are the PRODUCT OF THE DEVIL AND EVIL INCARNATE! - I say this from an overperfumed hotel room in Provo), so sleep was tough for me. Up at 3:30, off to the Norfolk airport. The usual airport stuff, long lines - a bit of weirdness at the gate, when we learned after sitting there for several minutes that they were actually boarding, but for whatever reason they don't announce it. You're just supposed to mind-read that fact.

Extremely annoying people on the plane in front of us, reclining their seats, acting like their seats were rockers, and FARTING up a stink storm. Flew to Houston, immediately recognizable by the mildew smell as you step off the plane. Had to settle for McDonald's food for "breakfast" or whatever meal it was by then. Onto another, bigger plane with fewer annoying people, but still.

However, this leg of the journey I was flying over a part of the country that I'd probably not flown over before, and I had the window seat, and the landscape was fascinating. For the longest while, it was just pale brown sandy looking dirt. Then it changed to red clay for a while, and the some incredibly beautiful crop patterns. Land divided into the usual grids, but inside each grid it was plowed and/or planted in circles. Many of the circles were close to the same size, some of them were half one color and half another. I saw one pair that was divided perfectly into thirds. There was a trapezoid that held six circles, two each of three different sizes, perfectly filling the space. My brain was seeing quilts everywhere, wonder geometric quilts. Strangely enough (to me), it was all beautiful, even though it was all shades of brown and grey I hate brown, but this was lovely.

Then the landscape changed again, and it was brown and barren. If those lines were roads, they were unpaved. I'm conviced that I was looking at the place where the 1969 moon landing was filmed, or where the Mars rover really set down; it seemed so other worldly from above. That gave way to hilly sort of stuff that turned into mountains, and the next thing I knew there were BIG mountains with SNOW on the tops! To see it from above, see how few signs of human life there were in some of those areas - that's what I've been longing for! I'm so overloaded on people and noise. These places truly re-define "the middle of nowhere" and that is SO where I want to be!

We landed in Salt Lake City, got our rental car, and drove South to Provo. We discovered that this is graduation weekend here, and the city is FILLED TO THE BRIM with families. Traffic, mid day on a Friday, was a nightmare. We were less than two miles from our hotel, but the last two miles had taken us at least ten minutes, so we stopped for "lunch." Then on to the hotel, where our room wasn't ready anyway.

There's a beautiful lake next to Provo, and gorgeous mountains everywhere, but we've been up for fifteen hours now and haven't had dinner. We tried to relax in the hot tub, but there were screeching kids in the pool. So now Rick is taking a hot bath, and since Voyager isn't on TV, I'm writing this.

My guilt follows me even on vacation; I look out the hotel room window (which we have open in hopes of getting rid of some of the air freshener from hell) and see snow capped mountains through the trees. But neither one of us has any interest in getting in a car and going anywhere. We spotted a Mexican grill across the street where we will walk for dinner. And then hopefully some quiet time in the pool, then bed.

Goodness only knows when we'll wake up tomorrow, but we're off to Moab. And that's when the fun should really begin!

However, something GOOD!

2007-03-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

So, now that I'm not trying to be creative anymore, I picked up this head last night to work on while I vegged out watching "Return of the King." Again. My baby boy went off to jail again last Friday, this time for 4-6 months, and I'm just sort of in this weird emotional place. Anyway, I started this doll in a class with Kathleen Chrisman last December - here's a link to the class description with a photo of Kathleen's dolls. I'd gotten my head done but only about half of the hair put on - it was looking kind of like Christpher Lloyd in "Back to the Future." And I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. So, last night I picked up the head and the mohair and felting needle, and started adding more hair while I watched my movie. And, just like always, a personality started to emerge, and there's no more question - she's a her. :-) She wants beads in her hair, bright sparkly beads and lots of them. She might want a body and limbs first, before she gets her beads, but we'll see. Her body is made of fabric from Bold Over Batiks. This is the first doll I've made in half of forever, and I'm really enjoying it. :-) I know that her face is way bleached out from the flash, but you can see her good enough:

A junky compass

2007-03-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the compass that I was working on, with the delusion of entering it into the Kaufman Quilt Quest competition. It was, of course, going to have lone star bits around it, but let's face it - it's butt ugly. I don't do well when I try to force my creativity, and here's some tangible evidence:

Permission

2007-02-20T05:54:00.000-08:00

So, I think I've given myself permission to stop trying to do my own creative stuff for a while. I was trying to do something to enter in the Kaufman Quilt Quest (of course, it was a Mariner's Compass/Lone Star kind of thing), but I hate it. It's hideous. I kept working so hard on it, trying to force creativity and beauty and inspiration, but how stupid is that? Mandatory fun. I think I'd really be doing myself a favor to just Lighten Up and accept that what little creativity and inspiration I do possess is being channelled in other directions, other ways. Like all the shop and class samples I do. Like the Cure by Design project. Like planning the shop events and classes and displays.

I still want to make something for *me*, sometime. I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

Loom for Sale

2007-02-11T09:46:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone actually reads this blog anymore, and just in case that anyone might be interested in (or know someone who might be) a loom for sale, I've put details on my personal website, here:
Loom for sale!

Squares

2007-02-11T09:42:00.000-08:00

Just so I feel like I'm sticking to my goal of posting here more often, here's a project that's *almost* done. It's actually a shop sample, for the Stashbusters club/class that I "teach", but I really do like it. Well, I'd like it more if there didn't seem to be so much pink/peach, but still. It's all solids; I love solids.

Unfortunately, I spend way too much time doing shop samples (some of which please me, but most of which end up boring me) and not enough time doing my own work. Although, hopefully today, I'll get some ME sewing time in. My chores/obligations for the day are (I think, I HOPE!) nearly all done.....

Pizza Boxes

2007-02-05T14:55:00.000-08:00

We put our house on the market last spring, thinking we could sell it and pay off some of our debt and get a more reasonably sized house. Well, it didn't work out that way. We tried for 3-4 months, but the only offer we got was laughable. And in the meantime, real estate values skyrocketed along with interest rates, so we would have had a larger monthly payment for half the house. So we gave it up.

But of course, putting the house on the market meant packing the studio. And now, more than six months after we gave it up, I *still* haven't finished unpacking. I just don't have the time. Plus, I still don't know where all my stuff (in boxes) is. But the chaos in the room was getting to me, so I decided to invest in a necessary tool for organization.

Pizza Boxes.

They're plain brown boxes from Sam's, nice sturdy corrugated cardboard. Each one holds a project in progress, or something that's somehow related to something else. They're all labeled. It made me feel like I was making some headway. Here's a picture of my pile of pizza boxes - so far - I know there will be more:

So, there it is, some insight into my personal chaos.

Now I really am going to go work on something........

Postcard

2007-01-26T03:08:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for this year is to post more on this blog (and my shop blog, too, but that's different). Implied in the goal is that I'll actually *work* on stuff, maybe some of my own stuff again instead of always just shop samples. Well, I don't have anything new to post - yet - although I am doing a little personal work now and again, but here's something from last year that I never posted.

Last June, I taught at the Blue Ridge Quilt Festival in Blacksburg. While there, I stayed with a very talented quilter, Dorothy, and her DH who has Alzheimers. They live west of Blackburg, halfway up a mountain, in this incredible house that is mostly glass facing east, facing the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is DARK there at night, and QUIET. These are things that are familiar - from my childhood - to this now city girl. I immediately felt a connection to Dorothy, almost as if I'd known her all my life, and I learned so much from her and her DH (whose name I'm sorry to say I've forgotten). Getting away from home and from the shop to such a peaceful place was something that was much needed, even though I was teaching.

Rather than the conventional thank you note, I made a fabric postcard that just looks like any old mountain view, but I spent a lot of time working to get the exact view from their living room:

Baby is crawling!

2006-10-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

She's growing up way too fast for me - here she is crawling:

Grandbaby

2006-01-31T03:29:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone ever looks at this blog anymore, but just in case - here's a picture of our most darlingest sweet thing:

Quilts for sale

2006-01-17T18:30:00.000-08:00

We're moving. I'm in purging mode; we've got way too much stuff.

I have a few quilts that I just don't want anymore. And I don't really want to "sell" them, as in earn money from them. Somehow that just doesn't feel right. So I'm going to do a charity sort of thing. I will sell them for a donation to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, in memory of my father.

So far, I know I want to sell the Separation quilts. They should probably remain together. If anyone is interested, send me an email and we can talk numbers.

More to come, probably......

This is depressing.......

2005-09-24T02:22:00.000-07:00

I'm totally uncreative these days, and so now this:

Your Power Color Is Indigo

At Your Highest:

You are on a fast track to success - and others believe in you.

At Your Lowest:

You require a lot of attention and praise.

In Love:

You see people as how you want them to be, not as how they are.

How You're Attractive:

You're dramatic flair makes others see you as mysterious and romantic.

Your Eternal Question:

"Does This Work Into My Future Plans?"

What's Your Power Color?

I have dramatic flair? I'm a shade of BLUE?!?!? Yuck.

One of my online friends died this week. I've known her for a long time, maybe even ten years? She was part of a group of us that met on a cloth dollmakers' list and we formed our own sub-group from that. At one time, I think there were ten or twelve of us. They were my sounding board a LOT when I was going through the whole separation thing. I think whatshishame had already moved out when I met Bev FTF; she came to visit with her Aunt, they were just passing through. She was an incredible woman who had suffered terribly in her life but still had such a big heart - probably too big for her own good. Our little circle of friends has shrunken over the years, a few people have dropped out or drifted away, never to be heard from again. The rest of us touch base occassionally, but I always know they're *there*. Except now they're not; Bev's gone, and we haven't heard anything from two of the others who were still part of the group. Maybe, like me, they're still in shock. Maybe they're sick of bad news, too, and have stopped turning on the computer or the TV.

I've just started this new business, and it *has* to succeed. And I have every reason to believe it will; it's going very well so far and nearly all the feedback has been positive. And yet with large scale disasters at every turn, and then losing a friend, and probably the whole hormonal thing (which is another story altogether but I ain't gonna get into that here, now, too!), well, things just feel so dark. I feel some of that survivor's guilt, too, worrying so much about my business when thousands have - and surely will by the end of today, too - lost everything.

This shouldn't be important, either, but dammit, it is. The Phillies ROCK, and while I should feel more sorry for the people of Texas right now, I want the Astros to LOSE. Totally.

Okay, I'm gonna go try to sew something. Creative. Like maybe those overdue postcards, NOT the Jinny Beyer nightmare.

I did something!

2005-08-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my day off. I spent a lot of time working on a shop sample, the new Jinny Beyer quilt (see the shop blog for a picture). But then I did something for ME!!!!!

Last February I took a class from Teri Austin at the Hampton Mancuso boys show. The class was on painting on quilts. I did a still life, using only one fabric for all the pieces. I loved it. I even bought the thread to machine quilt it that weekend, too, two variegated King Tuts that were perfect matches.

So, I finally quilted it last night. And I love it I love it I love it. I don't like the way the background still poofs out a bit, but I'm hoping once it's trimmed and bound that will go away.

I brought it into the shop with me to take pictures of it today. Many people ooohed and ahhhed and drooled over it. Once lady observed that it would "make a nice placemat." IWNDTWAR.

These things are like a disease or something....

2005-08-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% Yankee

35% General American English

15% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

You are

What Rejected Crayon Are You?

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Famous Magician.

Where You Lived: Ireland.

How You Died: Consumption.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

Thanks, Deb and Julie :-|

2005-08-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Like I have nothing better to do than take a Classic Movie Quiz! I am:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Joyce has a headache

2005-08-19T03:39:00.000-07:00

Wow! I hardly remember how to use blogger anymore.

It's been a couple of months since I've posted anything here. The shop consumes all my time, waking and asleep. I've been blogging, but on the shop blog, not my personal blog. And I occassionally get to sew, too, but on shop samples, not personal stuff.

And I'm not complaining, really, even though I know it sounds like I am. There's weather moving in (again), which means I have a bad headache this morning. I have a massage in less than an hour, which will do this weary aching body a world of good. But it will help even more if I can get my brain to settle down a bit, and so that's why I'm blogging here.

Here, because I may say something that I don't necessarily want my customers to see. Although I know that some of them are aware of this blog, too, but I think they mostly read the shop blog. And truthfully, in the last month and a half since the shop's been open, I've met so many wonderful people, made so many new friends. It has been very gratifying.

I'm working harder than I ever did at the Job for Corporate America (altho god knows I worked plenty hard there), but this time it's for me; it's *my* bottom line, my hard work makes a difference for *my* business. And so even though I'm tired and aching, even though I wake up with bloodshot tired eyes complete with dark circles, even though I have a broken finger and my hands hurt all the time and my shoulder and back and feet ache, I'm a thousand times happier than I was a few short months ago. Escaping that job was so much like escaping a bad marriage; BTDT. I'm so grateful to be out.

But every now and then, someone will just get under my skin, and it's so hard to shake the one negative person you encounter in the two hundred good ones. Yesterday someone came in the shop, someone who claimed that she was planning to open her own shop sometime in the future, but she'd spent all her money on the building for it. And so how much did she need to spend on inventory? How much did *I* spend on inventory? And isn't it just so much *FUN* to get to sew all day? I told her that I work about 80 hours a week, and maybe 5 of them are sewing. I tried very hard not to be negative, because I work hard at living up to our tagline - "a friendly shop for quilters by quilters." But when someone can stand there in my shop, which has been open seven weeks, and look at all the shelves and fabric and fat quarters (which, by the way, do not cut themselves!), and the samples on the walls, and, well, you get the picture - look around the shop and assume that I get to sew all day!?!?! Pulleaze.

And so having a headache this morning has given a bad edge to the day. I have a lot of work planned for today, but DD's boyfriend leaves for college today, so I know that my helper is going to be a bit blue. I feel bad for her. BTDT, too, but I know that doesn't help. He's going to leave a hole in her life and she's going to need time to figure out how to fill it. I'm hoping that she'll turn to working on some of her gazillion art/fiber/beading projects, because she's good, and I want to see her explore her creativity more. Hopefully she won't read this, because I might have just jinxed it. :-|

I love it when my customers bring in what they're working on to show me, or when they drop off or pick up something from one of the machine quilters. I get to live vicariously through them. Sometimes we joke that we help pick out the fabric, send them home to do the sewing, and then they bring back "our" quilt to show us! Earlier this week a woman stopped by with a truly lovely quilt she'd make. It was all batiks, some of which she'd bought from us. And I remember feeling a bit unsure about her color choices, but of course it was *her* quilt and she knew what she wanted. Well, she was right. I'd never use those colors, because they aren't mine, but the quilt was gorgeous.

Last week someone came in the shop for the first time and she was carrying along a project she was working on. Usually I can look at and admire and drool over what people are doing or have done, and it's nothing more or less than sharing in the joy of what they've created. But this time, I was green with envy. This woman was making something so incredible that I wanted it to be MINE, I wanted it to be ME who was sewing on all those beads. It made me realize how much I miss doing my own work.

So, soon, I hope to get back to it. I may need to start making appointments for myself, times when I work on MY stuff, not shop stuff. I have a day off on Monday and was planning to work on the new Jinny Beyer Around the World quilt sample. But maybe I should squeeze some me time in there.

If only I had an ounce of inspiration to work with......

And so ends Joyce's pity party for today.

Do I have anything to say?

2005-06-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted.

It finally caught up with me today. I'm working 12-14 hours a day most days, not taking any days off, and while I'm loving what I'm doing, I'm just plain worn out. I feel like I hit a brick wall. And now that I'm ready to go to bed, I'm writing in my blog instead (since neither child is home and I'm afraid I won't hear them if I go to bed now, and then I'll feel like a Bad Mommy).

I have pictures of the prom dress to post - well, they have to be cropped and resized first - but that's way down the todo list. Tomorrow I'll spend much of the day cutting fabric in preparation for the sample sewing party that we're having at the shop. I've invited several of my friends over for an evening of sewing; I'm to have everything cut out and ready to go for them. I'll feed them - pizza and chocolate - and they'll sew for me, and we'll all have fun. I do have a few projects cut out, but not all that I'd planned to, yet.

Sunday we plan to take a day OFF and go to Surry and put the boat in the water and play. Rick had asked for the day off when he took his new job, since it was supposed to be his DD's graduation. But apparently somehow she lost her way, and now she's not going to graduate. So incredibly sad, really, and it's breaking his heart; he loves her so much and hasn't heard from her in weeks. I know that a day of water skiing won't make him forget that it's father's day and he's not likely to hear from his kids (just like last year). I love his kids, too, but I want to smack them - he's truly done his best and they don't get it. And I'd give almost anything to be able to call my father on father's day.

There's a collection of fabric that we got for the shop that I've been drooling over ever since it arrived, so tonight I cut out a "dear jane" block with one of the fabrics. Don't know when I'll get to work on it, but it's all ready to go when I have time. I finished piecing another quilted diamond at the guild meeting last night; will post a picture eventually.

Prom!

2005-05-21T18:21:00.000-07:00

I'm too lazy to write about it, but here's a picture of the incredible prom dress, finished (sort of) only minutes before the boyfriend arrived. I have lots of detail pictures to add later, but I'm just too tired.

Obviously, we got a new camera, too. So far, so good....

It's all over now.......

2005-05-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day at work. No more being on call. No more pager. No more having a project queue long enough to reach into the next decade, and no more getting NO support from IT management. What a relief.

I've had a headache all day - mostly weather, but then pizza - and now it's even worse. I feel my shoulders starting to drop as I let go off four years' worth of tension, and I think in a few days, I may actually feel and look younger. However, for now, I'm just exhausted. Totally and completely, mentally and physically.

However, I've now got a list a mile long of things I need to do for the shop, phone calls to make, blah blah blah. And a prom dress to finish - by tomorrow at 3. But I think that maybe this weekend, I'm going to take a break from working on shop stuff and just sleep and watch Star Trek and have fun. Then Monday and/or Tuesday, when Rick and I finally have two days off together (we haven't had one together for about a month), we're going to put the boat in, weather permitting. And maybe go see Star Wars. I won't be able to turn my business brain off, so I'll just make a List. Write down everything I think of that I have to do, and deal with it Wednesday. That is, all except for the stuff I *have* to do Monday. :-|

I'll have to get excited later. I'm thinking I might need to take another darvocet to relieve the vice around my temples now.

Broken Camera :-(

2005-05-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

Our digital camera is broken. Forever. Now it's in pieces.

I've done some surfing of camera reviews, etc, and have tentatively chosen the Canon PowerShot A85. Anyone have any comments or advice? I need one very soon; the prom is this weekend and I know people are hanging on the edge of their seats waiting for pictures!

I'm instant coffee?!?!?!?!

2005-05-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks, DebR, for this stupid quiz. I guess the results are just more proof that I'm exhausted beyond belief.

You are instant coffee gulped on a bus.

You are better than nothing. You are well-meaning,
but ersatz. You sing along with Muzak in
elevators. You cannot remember your original
hair color, and your artificial nails could be
used to slice a zucchini. You forget small
details such as your telephone number and the
names of your children. You believe in
astrology, numerology, and satinism (the cult
of shiny fabrics).

What kind of coffee are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Mother's Day - I did some SEWING!

2005-05-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

DH is working, DS is at his friend's house (as usual), and DD is off with DBF (dear boyfriend). It's a gorgeous day, sunny and warm for a change. But the Phillies are on tv (very rare in this Braves obsessed town), so I'm in my studio. SEWING!

While at Market last weekend, I bought several patterns that I wanted to try out, see if I wanted to sell them in the shop, make samples. I picked one of those to work on. I was very disappointed in the lack of instructions in the first one I picked (but I won't name names if I can't say something nice). So I picked another one from the pile, Lakes, #10 in the Accidental Landscapes series by the Quilted Lizard:

I really liked this pattern - well written, clear instructions. It was easy to do and I'm happy with the result. These patterns are definitely on my list to sell in the shop. I used Esterita Austin's fusible to do the cattails and was reminded how nice that stuff is to work with. That's another product I hope to carry in the shop.

Now if only the Phillies would win and my children be home for dinner tonight, it would be a perfect Mother's Day.

Prom Dress - in progress

2005-05-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

I sewed the skirt together, but it needs to be hemmed and it doesn't have a waistband yet. It wasn't too bad to sew, really; cutting it out was more the nightmare. I sewed the zipper in by hand.

My mother sewed the bodice, and we'd asked her to put straps on it but not sew them fast in the back (because we're doing this by mail - I was going to sew them to the right length). Tonight we went bra shopping and found a strapless bra that, as DD puts it, "won't float." IOW, no padding. So here she is, trying all the pieces on (another bad picture):

She's decided that she doesn't want the straps after all.

Today she bought four shades of seed beads to do beading on the bodice. And I have to finish the skirt. The bodice needs a little alteration, it's got that gap-under-the-armpit thing going on. Luckily our friend Penny is an awesome seamstress and I have total confidence that she can help us fix it.

The prom is in two weeks.

Oh, and DD bought a purse tonight for prom, too, so that's one less thing that she has to do between now and then (she was going to make one).

I think this skirt represents all the sewing I've done in the last several weeks, and that's just sad.

Tomorrow

2005-05-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I am going to quit my job. In the next few days, I will be announcing to the world (well, to the rest of the world that doesn't read my blog) that I am going to be opening a quilt shop. And I fully expect that my chronic headache will start to fade away (in fact, it already has).

I have a lot to do.

Starting with sewing the prom dress skirt, which I am going to go work on. Right now. In between the happy dancing.

:-)

Diamonds - Baseball and Quilted

2005-04-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

I feel terrible that I'm neglecting my blog as much as I am. At least, it seems like it's neglect. But really it's just way too much busyness. And it's not going to get any better for at least another week.

The Disney trip was good (other that it getting COLD in APRIL - what's up with THAT!), but it already seems like a distant memory. My mysterious project that I'm working on has taken up most of my time (that I'm not at work), and I'm hopefully within a day or two from announcing it to the world.

This weekend the stress and lack of sewing really started to catch up with me. And there were TWO Phillies games on TV (because they were playing the Braves, who really do suck, but apparently we suck more since we just keep on losing). Baseball on TV means sewing time, so I worked on one of the diamonds from the Quilted Diamonds book by Linda Franz. I finished it last night while watching "The Year of Living Dangerously" with DH (funny - I had totally forgotten the romantic part of the story line, and now I really think that actually detracted from the movie). But ANYWAY (is there anything to this entry except parenthetical thoughts?), here's a bad picture of the diamond I finished last night:

Phoebe and I leave for Quilt Market Wednesday afternoon. She's been so sick - her allergies went nuts in Florida, her ears clogged up (making the flight home totally miserable), and then we came home to yellow dust days in Richmond. Now everyone's allergies are nuts. She and I will both be flying with stopped up ears on Wednesday, so please send good-ear-popping-thoughts our way!

Whine Alert - read at your own risk!

2005-04-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

This was predictable, but still not guaranteed.

I've been busting my butt at work on two agonizing projects. Both were very complicated and convoluted and sick and twisted, and it's been a terrible struggle to keep things straight in my head. My brain hurts, I swear it does. Both projects were "high priority," both were supposed to be done before I leave for vacation. So for over a week now, I've been doing at least 12 hours worth of work in an 8 hour day - I barely come up to breathe and go to the bathroom - so that I could make the deadlines. Which I appear to have done, more or less.

A few hours too early. :-| Now I have to fill up at least another hour before I can go home. I can't sneak out early, because the boss from he** scheduled a meeting at 330; my presence is required. I don't want to start anything new, because when I hit the door, I'm going to do a brain dump and forget everything I know about SPC and semiconductors and datalog.

As if that isn't enough, I've also been filling up my "free time" (the few hours a day when I'm not at work, driving to or from work, or trying to sleep) with work on the business that I'm planning to open in two months or less. Agonizing over the phone calls that I need to be receiving but am not, as well as all the pieces that have to fall into place before April 27, when DD and I leave for Quilt Market. So much has to happen in such a short amount of time, and now I'm walking away from it all to go have fun in the sun.

I'm exhausted. I've had a bad headache - narcotics every day - for ten days now. I don't sleep enough, even though I'm way past tired. My butthole son pushes my buttons and tests my limits and I hate myself for not handling it better, especially on the eve of vacation. I want to smack the shit outta him, but to what end? I hate it when he can't see that I'm already fried, or maybe he does see that and just takes advantage of it. Whatever. Being a parent of a teenager is just not all it's cracked up to be.

And I hate it when I get all whiny, like I'm doing here. But I guess it's better to do it hear then pound the ears of my loved ones; they don't need/want to hear it either.

Vacation!

2005-04-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

Just so no one thinks I've abandoned my blog - I haven't. I'm leaving tomorrow on vacation, off to Disney World for a few days. It's going to be our last real vacation before some major life changing events, things that I'm still not quite ready to shout from the rooftops but hope to soon, things that will keep us from taking a vacation for a while.

I'm doing the insomnia thing again this morning, even though I am so bone tired that I'm afraid I'll sleep the whole vacation away. Work has been very high pressured and stressful lately, and I've been working on projects that seem to stretch my brain to its absolute limits. At the same time, I'm spending most of my remaining time on my secret project, which has been like working a second job. My brain hurts and I'm exhausted.

But by this time tomorrow, I'll be on an airplane, headed someplace warm! Life is good. :-)

I need some help with the prom skirt, please...

2005-04-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

The skirt for the prom, the one I dyed the silk organza for, is going to be several layers. There's an orange slinkly polyester lining, two or three layers of red tulle, then the organza on top. The skirt is a simple A-line with side seams and a seam in the back where the zipper goes, and a narrow waistband. I plan to sew each skirt separately, because that's the point, to have layers and poofiness. And then they'll all get sewn together in the one waistband.

So, which layer gets the zipper? I'm thinking it should be the lining layer, but then what do I do with the other layers to hold them shut? Maybe tiny hooks and eyes? Or will it just sort of lay shut on its own? Or what do I do?

Please leave comments for me, or send me an email. Thanks!

Rainbow Fish and Snail's Trail

2005-04-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I sewed a couple of blocks to show as examples for what our quilt guild chapter will be doing for the block lotto at our July meeting. The Snail's Trail block is 12"; the Rainbow Fish is foundation pieced (by hand, on a fabric foundation). Phoebe said the Snail's Trail was hideous (I think that was her word). The Fish block is prettier than in the picture; my scanner doesn't do colors well anymore and I'm too lazy to dork around and try to fix it.

Pictures, Pounds, and Pregnancy

2005-04-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, a picture of the quilt I talked about in my last post. *NOT* a good picture, but the best I could do on a windy day with nearly dead batteries in the digital camera and my poor DH's arms getting tired....

I went to WW this morning with no expectations, since I'm still on prednisone and my week was somewhat challenging, but I'm down another 3.2 pounds, bringing my total to 18.2 pounds lost this year. :-)

But the big news of the week is that I'm going to be a grandma! Those of you who know me but don't know my husband all that well can stop panicking (and for those of you who don't know me well, my oldest child is only 17, so I'm not quite ready for one of mine to give me a grandchild). DH has a son who has been married longer that we have, and he and his wife are expecting. We're all very excited about it. I've been wanting to be a grandma for a while. I love babies and don't have any friends with babies, and suffering through the teen years just makes me long for babies and toddlers even more. Plus it's an excuse to make a baby quilt!

Maybe I can think of a title later....

2005-04-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've had every intention of updating this before now, but I haven't. My main excuse for that is that I'm having trouble with my hands, as if the warranty on my CTR surgery expired or something. They hurt, they're often numb. I know the drill, BTDT, but truthfully I think that this is a side effect of being on prednisone so long. Pred makes me hold water, and that always bothers my hands. Oh, well, enough whining.

*ANYWAY* I made a quilt from the Northern Lights pattern, the pattern that Roxanne Carter did based on my Mariner's Lone Compass Star quilt (it's in her quilt gallery, here). To see the original quilt on which hers is based, click here. I dyed a bunch of gradations just for this quilt (well, also to have as examples for my gradations class a few weeks ago), and I did enough so that I can make up a few kits of gradation fabric to sell with the pattern. The pattern calls for 1/4 yard of each shade (4) of each color (8), so you need 8 yards of fabric just for the star points and compass! I sewed mine together differently - actually cut out diamonds and sewed them together, rather than sewing strips together and cutting them diagonally (and then un-sewing the colors you don't need on that strip). I don't get what it is that some people have about sewing diamonds, what makes them so scared. I guess that's another class to go on my to-teach-someday list.

Anyway, it's done and it's quite lovely. I'm going to have it machine quilted by someone who comes highly recommended by a couple of my quilting buddies.

I'll add pictures later, since I didn't take them yet.

And check out my DD's art blog here! I'm so glad she's doing this, because hopefully it means she's learning more html and can take over my website maintenance soon. ;-)

Finishing ATCs

2005-03-26T03:55:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure that I was happy with the way I was finishing my ATCs, so I decided to experiment a bit. I printed the back information onto some handdyed fabric that was stuck to wonderunder. Some of those I cut out and fused directly to the ATCs. Others I used timtex. Some I just cut with pinking shears and then stitched to a playing card that had my business card glued to it. There was one I finished last night using one of the printed wonderundered backs and timtex, I folded silk ribbon over the edge and did an overcast stitch with handdyed perle cotton. Looks cool, but took forever and made my already sore thumb even sorer.

Anyway, I concluded that my favorite finish is to trim the ATC to size with pinking shears; glue a business card to a playing card and then trim ~1/8" from each side; straight stitch the ATC to the business card. Fairly simple and clean, and they fit fine in the baseball card sleeves and pages.

Another crappy picture. :-(

And now I'm off to Weight Watchers to see how I fared after yet another week on prednisone. :-|

A Knitted Room

2005-03-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a cool link my DD sent along to me:
http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1212449.htm

More ABTs (Awesome Beaded Things)

2005-03-24T03:36:00.000-08:00

MUCH better! Last night I decided to just do some more ABTs on my pansy fabric collages, this time while "watching" Star Trek Voyager. I feel much better about these, and I'm loving doing them, playing will all these awesome beads I've been hoarding. I still need to finish them as ATCs. I think that instead of stitching them to playing cards with my business card on the back, I'll do something different this time. I'm leaning towards printing the backs with the computer onto fabric that's wonderundered, then fuse that to timtex and handstitch to the front of the card with perle cotton or something. Hopefully I can finish a bunch this weekend and get them in the mail! And start on some of the postcards for that swap, too.

I'm also hoping that I will have reason to celebrate this weekend, but that's all I'm going to say about that for now. :-)

Insomnia and ATCs

2005-03-23T01:55:00.000-08:00

Since joining yet another ATC swap group, plus Phoebe getting into them (again), I've been needing to do some finishing touches on some to get them in the mail. So last night, I tried to do some beading on some of my pansy ATCs while watching the movie "Monster." Oh, my. What an incredibly dark movie, very troubling. I found myself watching it (partially in amazement at Charlize Theron who was just more incredible than I can say) much the way you stare at a train wreck in progress. And so I'd sit there for a few minutes, holding a little ATC/quilt collage in my one hand, a beading needing in the other, doing nothing. Then I'd sew a few beads on, and it would look bad, so I'd tear them off. Etc. Somehow these pansy cards that I loved so much before just aren't cutting it for me now.

But Sunday night, I did some beading on a scrap of black with free motion quilting on it (leftover from the screen I finished over the weekend, another picture I need to take), and I got this awesome beading thing (with thanks for inspiration to Margaret Ball). So I put that on the scanner bed, too, and another funky beaded ATC. And since I've got insomnia yet again (the movie plus the current asthma meds), here it is:

And now that I've uploaded the picture, it looks to me like another crappy one. Why does it look so fine in PSP, and then when I pull it up on the web it looks like crap? Argh. Okay, I'm going to try to do a nice picture of just the awesome beaded thing:

Maybe I can squeeze in an episode of Star Trek Voyager after Rick leaves for work this morning, before I have to leave, to sort of cancel out last night's movie in my head. That's just not something I really feel like I want sticking in my brain too long. :-|

And I just went and tried to make a better picture of the four ATCs together, and I can't. I think my pictures get hosed in the resizing. Please, someone, give me some advice?

ATC Class

2005-03-20T03:41:00.000-08:00

Friday I taught an ATC class. I only had two students enrolled, but I was so looking forward to teaching the class (and getting a day away from my "other" job) that I planned to go ahead with it anyway. But then one student didn't show up! I still haven't heard anything from her and hope that everything's okay.

So, my one student - who is a friend from my quilt guild - and I got started on our very informal class, and I convinced DD Phoebe to join us to play, too. Phoebe's creative energy is so infectious that having her in a class is always a good thing. My method for creating ATCs is to create a piece of fabric collage ~12" square, and then cut it apart later, do more embellishment, and voila! So Anne decided to put her butterfly and dragonfly and frog fabrics to good use. She started by doing some stamping on her background fabric, then doing some wonder-under applique pieces. We also played with Angelina fibers, making "sheets" of Angelina and thread snippets and ribbons and yarns, and then cutting them apart to include in the collage. Phoebe was working on a small pictorial piece that she didn't intend to cut apart for ATCs, and so she was busy making Angelina clouds:

Once Anne got done fusing everything to her background, she spent time playing with both the decorative stitches on her machine (of which I am envious, because I don't have a machine that does fancy stitches, even though I *love* my machine) as well as some stragically placed free motion quilting:

We meant to be sure to take a picture of the finished piece before she cut it apart, we had the camera on the table so we wouldn't forget, etc, but of course we did. So I laid out all the pieces she'd cut apart, *not* in the right order, but you get the idea. Rather than just cutting it into pieces in such a way as to get the most ATCs out of her piece, Anne chose to "fussy cut" a bit, so she'll end up with seven finished cards. I encouraged her to take her smaller pieces and join them with some of her wonderful machine stitches, and then she'll have pieces large enough to make a few more cards:

Anne plans to do some beading and maybe decorative stitching on the individual cards before she sews them to playing cards and calls them complete. I can't wait to see the finished results!

Since I had "free time" while Anne was working, I assembled a couple of pieces to stitch together later that I intend to use for postcards for the fabric PC swap I've joined. And since I just joined another ATC swap group, I hope to get an ATC or two out of the "scraps" from the postcards, too. Here are some not-great photos of mine; I have a terrible time taking pictures of things with sparkly bits (in this case, tulle and Angelina and sequins), and I don't have the patience to dork with it too much this morning. These are still in the early stages, of course:

Shiva Oil Sticks

2005-03-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

Last night my friends Margaret and Penny came over and joined DD Phoebe and I for an evening of playing with Shiva oil sticks on fabric. Margaret had done some before, originally after reading the article in Quilting Arts magazine. Penny had bought a whole set of the irridescent sticks at the Hampton show but hadn't used them yet. I had two sticks and a set of rubbing plates I'd gotten at Houston but still hadn't tried out, plus Margaret had gotten a set of rubbing plates in Hampton.

So we just set up on the big tables in my living room (that doubles as a classroom) and went to it, experimenting and playing and having fun. I didn't enjoy working with the sticks as much as I thought I would, perhaps just because of timing; I'd had a pretty rotten day at work and had lost one of my favorite earrings, too. And sometimes it's just hard for me to feel like I have any energy or creativity left in the evenings, and last night was one of those times.

But it was still fun to play with them, see what they can do. Here are pictures of my big piece and some charm squares I did:

And here's Phoebe's piece - hers is the prettiest, I think, but my photo is a bit out of focus:

Now we just have to wait for them to dry or cure or whatever - basically to stop stinking.

While working on these last night, DD accidentally reminded me of what it was like to try to color in a coloring book when I was a kid of one and my sisters was around. No matter what color I'd pull out of the box, she'd take it away, because she *needed* it. Just a random (useless) memory, one that probably speaks volumes about who I am today. :-|

The Prom Dress

2005-03-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

DD Phoebe has been looking at art wearables for so long that it's only natural, I guess, that she want her prom dress to be a work of art. Her grandmother will be sewing the bodice - basically a simple black silk dupioni corset-type top, strapless - and Phoebe plans to embellish it with beads (and who knows what else). The skirt will be hand-painted silk organza (in progress, below - forgive the odd camera angle), tulle, lining, with goodness knows what else going on. Possible burned silk organza, or shredded bits, or whatever. I dyed a sample yesterday that came out almost perfectly, so hopefully when this is washed out, it will make the grade.

Now I just have to sew this stuff. *cringe*

The Beginning

2005-03-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

I have to start somewhere, right? So I'm just starting right in the middle.

Last week I made a quilt based on a freezer paper foundation pattern. But I strip pieced it, I didn't foundation piece it. It's something of a disaster, because I didn't take my time and check all my measurements so it doesn't like flat. But that's not the point.

I had a bunch of strips and scraps left over from the project, so I made this:

It's big enough (about 10 x 14") that I should be able to get four postcards out of it for the postcard swap I've signed up to do.

Something else I hope to accomplish with this is getting better at taking my digital images and having them still look good after I crop and resize. And reasonable suggestions are welcome. I use PSP for editing, and I don't think I do a terrible job, but I'm certainly not great. Yet. :-)