Well that was a whirlwind! How did we get to the 27th so quickly? I know… kids, end of year and all that good stuff. Well, I’m here, just swamped. I’ve finally been working on some REALLY tedious stuff for my book (figuring out what I want the photos to look like, setting them up, taking a snapshot for guidance to AQS when they do their photo-shoot, re-naming and re-sizing all the blasted photos, etc…. who knew you had to do all that stuff too when writing a book? I sure didn’t…. erg. ….). So that means my “free” time has been spent on the book. Plus it was the end of the year, so herewith some family photos! Next post I’ll share my new placemats (yes, it involves cloth and paint), and then Joshua’s graduation pix!

On the Thursday before school let out (a week ago I think it was), Eli’s fourth grade class had a “Poet’s Corner” for lunch and parents were invited. Each child had made an album with mod-podged/ gel-mediumed torn art papers on a base paper, and their spring term’s poems were printed (kids got to choose the font etc. as well as write the poems).

Eli’s writing was amazing…he and a couple of the other kids really excelled. One poem was so good I promptly asked his permission to use it on one of my Journal quilts for this year! WOOT! My very first journal quilt was based on Joshua’s artwork, so this is now Eli’s turn… I’ll share the poem when I make it and IF the journal gets in to Houston, will share pics in November….. first gotta make it though! Anyway, the picture above is Eli reading. And here is the other of the two poems he read aloud… I totally LOVE it!

Mouse 2 (because it’s the second Mouse poem–please ignore the dots, couldn’t figure out formatting or the accent over the “e” on flambe)

• Mouse in crumbs
• Happy as thee
• Being flourished by food day and night
• Mouse you better run for the cat has come
• not to play but to have mouse flambe
• You escape with your life Mouse in crumbs
• Happy as thee can be.

Then that evening was the 8th grade formal dance. Joshua went with friends Vinnie and Kyle, who came by to collect him (Vinnie’s mom drove them, and I picked him up at 10….). First, Joshua before the other guys arrived:

Then, I LOVE this one with the little brother in the background!

How can I have a kid old enough to shave?

Say what you ask? PLA batting? It is being sold as an EcoCraft Eco-Friendly batting (made by the folks who created Mountain Mist…here) . More on that in a sec…

Last summer when Joshua was hurt, Sue Franck (whom I have met only over the internet) organized a thing for folks to send Joshua blocks, which I would make into a quilt. Well, at long, long, LOOOONNNGGGGG last, I have assembled the tops. Yes, two. We had over 70, since some folks sent extras, or an extra for Eli, who also had to pay a price (and was awesome about it). I asked Joshua if he wanted borders, or sashing, to whatever, and he said (bless his sweet soul) that he just wanted as many of the blocks as possible. That meant a quilt 6×8 blocks, which is 72 by 96 inches! Eli’s quilt is a generous 5 x 5 blocks or 60 inches square (he still hasn’t decided what he wants for a backing! it’s on the design wall in the background). We used every single block!

My heartfelt thanks and hugs to Sue and every sweet soul who sent a block…we have them from all over the US, Australia, Singapore, England, Scotland, Canada… totally amazing. I will confess to feeling a whole lot of love and just a little choked up from time to time as I have quilted…..

One very generous soul from the QuiltArt list sent a Queen sized batt instead of a block! WOW! It was this batting that was new on the market as of last summer, and we were both curious. I am so grateful for her generosity, and I don’t want anyone to think that my comments about the batt in any way reflect on the fact that I SO appreciate her kindness.

Anyway, the packaging says it is made from corn fibers and—this should have been my first clue—is a batting similar to your favorite polyester batt. Hmmmm……

Here is what it looked like unrolled for basting. Yuck.

It was thinner and had a bit softer drape than those awful 1970s poly batts we hated and don’t miss, but it is… I must sadly say… just as awful. Where it was folded to fit into the bag and then unrolled, it stretched and creased, and they never came out…see that distortion across the middle of the table?  It still feels kinda lumpy under the quilt. It puffs and looks awful. The edges are wavy, not straight. My hands snag on it. It has thin spots. Yuck. Did I say yuck?

We selected a Polartec 200 for the backing. I have made other quilts with a thin cotton batting (Dream Cotton) and they have been wonderful, quilted up nicely, etc. Well…… using the poly batt on top of the polartec was not a good decision. I kept hoping that as I quilted it would get better. The back does look good however…. the quilting isn’t done so I’ll show it when I’m done. My machine had finally had it and decided it needed a tune-up, tho, so I am at a temporary standstill.

Here’s a picture of how I baste in sections on my worktable:

I did want to share this info tho and say DO NOT BUY THIS BATTING unless you liked the look, feel, and handling of the 1970s polyester batts. I have two Mariner’s compasses blocks someone sent which I will make into pillows (one for each son), and I was going to use the leftovers. I can’t do it…. I just can’t. Sigh. The compass blocks are gorgeous, and deserve an nice cotton batt, and they shall get it!

Only a bit more to quilt on Joshua’s…. Unless I decide it is so hideously puffy that it needs a lot more quilting, which is entirely likely……at least I made a smart decision to do really simple walking-foot quilting, not my usual freemotion. That is helping a lot with the bulk…not only is the quilt large, but with the thick polartec and the PLA batt……..anyway, I may not get it done in time for graduation from 8th grade on Friday, but Joshua understands the machine is away for a tune-up….it just about ground to a slow halt, so I immediately stopped sewing. I think it is just well overdue for a lube job. I hope that’s it….

Late update:  nope… machine in the intensive care ward all week….  hopefully soon it will come home…

So what does a 14 year old boy/young man do on a rainy Sunday? Why troll the basement for the record player and the decommissioned “stereo” (purchased in about 1988).

The usual place is at the laptop, but with music (stand, guitar, etc) nearby. We also have this cool store in town, Wild Rufus, that cells CDs (new and used) and (!!!!) old records! So number one son has taken to buying albums, yes…black, vinyl 33 1/3 rpms records… which were displayed on the wall. I’m glad I snapped this picture because two hours later the were down…..

Joshua had also recently scored a nearly virgin Led Zeppelin IV (or is it II) album…the one with stairway to heaven! The cover is a bit rubbed with age, but otherwise in perfect condition except for a name written on the back in ballpoint…no scratches, no tears, nada… and the album inside looks nearly unplayed!

So, with a little help in hooking up components from the resident dinosaur (aka Mom)…. we have (drum roll……)

The speakers are a bit worse for the wear…dented, fabric cat-scratched, etc., but they worked…. and so did (!!!!) the turntable. So we listened to AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin (not that we had much choice… ahem! he is a teen…. he might live to adulthood….) on vinyl!

Whoodathunk it…. in the iPod age, we’re back to 33 1/3!

Speaking of which…. does anyone know what technology I might need to get some old records and tapes transferred to digital… I don’t care if they are copied to CD first or go straight to the computer…. I have some ancient folkie stuff that is no longer available anywhere and would love to have it on the ‘puter and iPod….

This past Saturday, Kate, Kathy and I met at Quilt Divas from 10-12 for a book signing which the owners, Debbie and Doris, arranged for Creative Quilting with Beads. The three of us and Frayed Edge in exile Deborah had eight projects in the book! (I stayed until 1, since I had goofed on the day and scheduled it for the same day as the local quilt guild chapter meeting…so I stayed until some friends could come down and buy books…then we had a blast and went out to lunch).

That’s Kathy, who always looks happy, always looks nice, and is just plain fun! I’m SO looking forward to the next year or two when she MOVES down this way! Anyway, Debbie and Doris set up a nice table and display just as you entered the store. Kathy is holding her project which (drum roll please!) they chose as the FIRST project for the book! WOOT! Deborah sent up her triptych that is in the book, my blue and orange piece is on the same display, and Kate had already packed up her two pieces that were in the book (she had a meeting and had to boogie on time, before I remembered to take pictures!).

While there, Kate was kind enough to let me photograph her journal, since I’m going to develop a new lecture on Journal quilts. I decided the lecture should be about journals too…how you can use a notebook to record ideas and stuff for later use. Kate’s camera died on a recent trip to Italy (I’d have perished on the spot!), SO she sketched instead. Man is she GOOD! Just look at this drawing, which she colored later with watercolors, of beach peas in bloom in a jar….

I was so inspired when Kate first shared these with us… she told us about some watercolors she had bought … made in Russia. Surfing around the internet and then Dick Blick (an online and real art supply store) I found them…. Yarka from St. Petersburg. And I found the $$ my mom had given me for Christmas (and which I had carefully tucked away so as not to lose it, and therefore which wasn’t to be found for six months….) and SPLURGED! I had been wanting some watercolors, and nice, rich, deep colored ones, not insipid student-cheapo grade….. and the price on these was not to be believed (or skipped)…

Here’s the Dick Blick page. Of course, have I DONE anything with them since they arrived a week ago? Nope… maybe this weekend? Anyway, I’m hoping that in time my journals will be as colorful and maybe even a tenth as wonderful as Kathy’s and Kate’s…..I’m so lucky to be surrounded by such talent!

Can you tell things are settling down? It’s a near miracle. And I am having fun avoiding working on my book by doing (and cleaning up) lots of little things. One thing I accomplished this week amid mom stuff, kid stuff, general exhaustion (what else is new) and walking the cutest dog on the planet, I made an apron! When teaching at Sarah Johnson Quilts in Belfast, Maine, at the end of February, I spotted this apron pattern from Indygo Junction:

I snapped it up, and some Westminster fabric and some batik I had planned to use for a totebag got snagged for the apron. I will admit, I was a bit surprised by the pattern. Now, I am used to professional garment patterns (have been sewing with Butterick, et alia, since I was aged in single digits, which was a loooonnnnggggg time ago), but there wasn’t a layout! Nor was there a little guide showing what pattern pieces were on the pattern tissue. That meant the all-text, no pictures instructions were hard to follow. I was also mystified why they printed the cross stitch pattern on the tissue and again on the reverse side of the instruction sheet. They would have done FAR better to eliminate the second version of the cross stitch (on the red apron) and write adequate directions.

That said, I loved the apron! I adapted it…instead of making a partial lining, it was a WHOLE lot simpler to simply make it reversible…clean finished edges everywhere, no fussy lining up of stuff or unsighly seams showing, etc . And it makes it two layers at the tummy, where I’m always leaning against a drippy counter! The photo above is of my favorite side. Thanks to Eli (number 2 son) who is my relieable photographer. Please ignore the gut, the glasses, the lack of make-up (and therefore nearly invisible eyes!), etc. What can I say, I’m a plumpish, medium-everything (brown, weight, height, etc) except of course for the fish-belly white skin….. Anyway, photos are a good cure for delusions that I might look decent (and hotel bathroom mirrors are downright evil, but we’re not gonna go there….).

Enough blathering…here’s the other side of the apron:

It took a few shots (and reminding myself I look less plumpish if I grin!), but I like the photo…..

This coming week:  quilt Joshua’s quilt  and write an article or two… or at least START the articles, after crazy life and quilting, Cheers, Sarah