If I Had A Camera...

I could show you the progress I've made on the Fabric of Life challenge quilt! I have pieced the two fat quarters into a central panel for the top and added a border made from a single fat quarter of another African print already in my stash. I fooled around with other fabrics for additional borders but nothing has really worked so far. I made some wonky Hourglass blocks and tried those in various positions around the top. I went out and bought two more fabrics I thought might work. Now that they have been washed and pressed and a few pieces cut I'm not so sure they will work afterall. (Naturally!) This has been two days of effort. I've enjoyed every minute of it but I'm tired and done for today. I will look at it again tomorrow (or the next day; my menfolk are due home late tonight). Hopefully some wonderful solution will present itself at that time.

I have been trying to create this top in a completely improvisational or intuitive way. I ripped rather than rotary cut fabrics when I could. I have used a ruler to guide my rotary cutter but have refrained from measuring as much as possible. In the past I have tried scissor-cutting but found my hands too wobbly (or my scissors too sharp!) to get the results I desire. I'm going for mostly straight seams here, not curved piecing. ;- )

An interesting phenomenon has occurred over the last few months. I have been doing mostly crazy patch blocks/projects or other intuitive piecing when I have not been engaged in finishing off old projects. (I piece onto a foundation - usually - when I am piecing a crazy block but I don't use a pattern for the patches or the placement of the patches.) Now I find that I have no desire whatsoever to make traditionally pieced blocks. No more precision cutting or sewing for me! Not for the time being anyway. (Never say never!) The Perfectionist in me still wants things to line up just so and be as neat as possible, but at least the child in me has a stronger voice these days and gets to play more. I call that progress.

In Honor of Those Who Have Served

I offer my humble gratitude.

All Quiet in the Magpie's Nest

...a little too quiet.


I was so looking forward to having the house to myself this weekend. Unfortunately my body seems to have the upper hand at the moment and I have been unable to take full advantage of the opportunity. I finally feel like I am beginning to regain control but only time will tell.


I have been receiving the June issues of my favorite magazines in the mail this week. Too bad I can't read them. Each day I put the newest one on the dining table and page through it while standing up. I can feel the fumes from the inks permeate my nose and sinus cavities. Sure enough, I soon have a new headache, followed by the rest of the exposure symptoms. DH is going to have to engineer a reading box for me. Something the books and magazines can go into with a clear top and some kind of mechanism that will allow me to turn the pages. I've learned that my carbon-filter mask is insufficient to protect me from this kind of exposure. We may have to buy new cartridges for the paint respirator mask so I can give that a try (while DH is building me a reading box). {sigh}




On a happier note, I am participating in a project called "Fabric for Life." This is a fabric challenge that will become an exhibit and eventually an auction fundraiser, the proceeds of which will benefit the Fabric of Life Foundation and the Here Je Center in Mali, West Africa. Each participant has purchased fabric that is produced in Mali by girls and women who are using micro-loans to start and operate businesses that will allow them to support themselves and their families. Since I was unable to attend the meeting where the fabrics were first presented, I asked for and was sent three fat quarters "that sort of go together" to play with. These are the three I received and I am delighted with them! I have chosen to keep one fat quarter for myself (the one with the wavy diagonal lines) because I like it so much (and I may try to buy more!); the other two will go into my challenge quilt. I have already cut one print up into roughly rectangular pieces. My thinking is that I will use the FQ that reads as a solid orange (but is actually a kind of tone-on-tone stripe) around these rectangles somehow. They may get built up into Log Cabin units or I may just use the orange as a kind of sashing. I pulled some of my African prints out of my stash the other day so I can play around with them and see what works with these two challenge fabrics. My first thought was to just surround the rectangles with the orange and then use a narrow inner border and wider outer border to finish it off. Seems too easy though. There's also the internal debate about whether to make something with fabric only or to make something I could bead embellish. The finished quilt has to be at least 18" square but no more than 48" square, with the challenge fabric(s) comprising 25% of the top surface of the quilt. I think I'm more tempted to go Gee's Bend with this than bead embellishing...

The Cream of the Crop!

Last night I was so jazzed by Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough winning "Dancing With the Stars" - as so rightly they should have! - that I couldn't go to sleep even though my body had been crying out for some shut-eye for hours. Instead I came up with a brilliant idea for a donation to the Hospice auction: "Hugs & Kisses for Hospice." I would make some more X's and O's, arrange them in a four-patch, build them up Log Cabin style if necessary, and make one or two pillows out of them. I could see it in bright happy colors, a la Sassenach's quilt for her daughter. It would be quick and fun and easily machine quilted (which, for some reason, I was now willing to do). Got out of bed to jot down these ideas and make a note to buy more fiberfill and then was able to go to sleep finally.

This morning I had the good sense to call Hospice to find out whether there was still time to make a donation to this year's auction. What do you think the answer was? Yup, I missed it by one day. They sent the program to the printer yesterday. Chalk up another one for Procrastination! Unless I use this as an opportunity to get a headstart on next year's donation... Any bets as to whether I'll follow through on this opportunity? ;- )

So the silk heart block can be put aside for the time being. I found a black paisley tone-on-tone cotton print in my stash that I like with the silks. I could use it to frame or border the block. I have also been thinking I might make three more blocks out of ties, use the cotton to sash (and stabilize) them, and make a wall hanging. We'll see. There's no hurry now. It also occurred to me to use this block as a learning experience and keep the next silk tie effort smaller. Maybe even piece onto a foundation. (I wasn't thinking clearly when I started sewing yesterday or I probably would have pieced onto a foundation. I was just working to distract myself from my physical discomfort.)

I have added a leaf to the vine on Vivian's round robin block. There was an empty spot I just couldn't live with. I had originally left it empty in an attempt to leave room for someone else to bead the nearby seams. I must not have been thinking straight then either. (This is a distressing pattern I see developing!)

DS#2 is frantically working to finish the details on a Star Wars costume replica for his brother who is flying up from Arizona tonight. To that end we made a trip to our local thrift shops yesterday afternoon to look for potential "tools" or whatever goes on the belt that Han Solo wears in the original trilogy of movies. He didn't find anything, but I did! It's the darling little cream pitcher you see in the picture at the top of the page. They had five teacups, without their saucers, and this pitcher. The teacups are what caught my eye. They were such a pretty shape. But I gave away nearly all of my teacups a couple of years ago and these didn't have saucers. That's when I noticed the creamer. Not the prettiest shape, relative to some others I own, but the print won me over. So much so that I paid more for it than I thought was reasonable. (Couldn't have been too unreasonable as I did pay for it afterall!) I went home a happy camper. And then Apolo and Julianne won. It was a great night!

Heart for Hospice?

Went to the chiropractor this morning for another cranial adjustment. I'm surprised at how much better I feel than the last time. I have a sort of generalized headache (not the kind that an analgesic will remove unfortunately) and other low level symptoms but I'm able to function (can't spell but at least I can sit at the computer and hit the keys). Last time I was a zombie on the couch after my adjustment. This is significant progress.

To keep my mind off my misery I have been creating this free-pieced heart. It's just one block that currently measures 11.5" x 14.5" and is made out of two silk neckties from our local thrift shops. Of course it has evolved differently from what I anticipated when I first began working on it this morning but that's the nature of intuitive piecing! This was sort of an experiment to see what would happen if I used silk ties in this way. I'm hoping to turn it into something I can donate for our local Hospice fundraising auction that's right around the corner. Right now the internal debate is whether to make it into a pillow or a wall hanging. I had originally wanted something I could hand embellish. That would be appropriate for a wall hanging. The silk is so soft that if I make it into a pillow I'd like it to continue to be soft enough to rest a cheek on, which pretty much eliminates the use of beads and other 3-D embellishments and may even require machine quilting. I'm not in the mood for machine quilting at the moment. Although, the silk is so darn slippery that I may be forced to do some machine stitching just to hold things in place while I do whatever else I decide to do. My frugal Scots-Irish heritage is playing into this decision too. Things are "more valuable" if they are useful. No-one needs a wall hanging, but a pillow could be put to good use if need be. {sigh} I need to conjure up the mentoring spirit of Pam Kellogg to get me over this hump. She has the gift of being able to forge ahead with whatever she feels is right for whatever she is currently working on. And the woman is prodigous. She just goes with whatever makes her happy in the moment without a care for what anyone else may think. Oh that I could be a fraction of that free-spirited!