Gratitude

Alright, no house updates in this blog, I promise! I'm taking a break to talk about my wonderful quilty friends and wonderful quilty things!

So, because I was a bit preoccupied with my packing up and getting out of Utah (which was quite a feat, given the 28 foot long truck we filled!), I have neglected to tell you all about the most amazing group of friends I have.

Almost two years ago I began to sew, learning most everything from blogs and the internet in general. One of the blogs I was following was Pamela's French Knots, which I found charming and full of great information. One day, I read about a retreat that Pam was hosting about 45 minutes away from where I live, and I decided on a whim to go. I didn't know Pam, and didn't know anyone going to the retreat. In fact, I had never even gone to a sewing retreat before and was still fairly self-conscious and nervous about my sewing skills—or lack thereof! Nonetheless, I gathered up my sewing things (feeling like I was packing to run away from home, I brought so much!) and headed to Utah County for the several day retreat. It was so great! I met the most amazing group of women and learned so much in the few days I was there! Pam threw a great retreat, with yummy food and a terrific class on appliqué.

It was at that retreat that I met Ella, Pamela, Kristen, Sue, April, Emily, and Amy. I'm not sure how it developed, but next thing I knew we were getting together regularly for sew days and retreats. At those days I met many other great people, including Marion and Jenny. Now it's been almost two full years, and I regard these women as great friends who made my time in Utah so special. I think I may have shared this story before, because last time I moved—then it was "just" across town—they showed up at my door with mop and pail (and wearing cute little bandanas) and cleaned our house from top to bottom with us. What a special gift it was!

When it came time for me to move east, I knew that the hardest part would be to leave my friends. I plan to return for retreats and such, but it's still not the same as being in the 'hood! Sweet Ella hosted a lovely farewell party for me the week before I moved, and they surprised me with the most wonderful, gorgeous churn dash quilt. So amazing! Just look at it—here's the front:

And here's the back:

Do you see? It has my first initial in the middle! The pink fabric is puppies from Ella's amazing stash. I had admired it once, and she generously gave me some of the fabric with a blue background. I was so delighted to have that fabric then, but to then discover the same fabric in pink on the quilt . . . so wonderful!

Everyone contributed a square, or binding, or quilting, and then signed it. What a special gift! I always think about my friends back in Utah anyway, but this is a particularly dear reminder. In fact, as I write this post I'm snuggled up in this great quilt.

April, in addition to her contributions to the quilt, made me an amazing, ever-coveted weekender bag. We had talked about making one, but I never dreamed she'd make one for me! I've been wanting one for so long, but they're such a project to make that I was a bit too daunted to try it myself.

Here's the bag in all her glory:

And here's the other side:

Here's the closeup on the front—the clothespin dolls are from my ever favorite Heather Ross:

And here's the closeup on the back—It's so so special, it even has a car pulling a teardrop trailer, just like we did driving across country!

Do you see the great Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy on the bottom? April knows I love my Denyse Schmidt, so she used her fabric throughout. This was my "to go" bag on my trek cross country. You can fit a small country in here!

I miss everyone so much, but I can curl up with my quilt and use my weekender bag and feel so close!

More News and Views From the Retreat

So. I think I've finally caught up on my sleep after 4 straight days of sewing! My neck, however, has not quite forgiven me for staring straight at my sewing machine for so long! I can only imagine what we looked like--a room filled with 76 women seated at their sewing machines from 7 a.m. until past midnight! One man stopped by and asked if we were all part of a sweatshop! I replied that I didn't sew nearly fast enough to keep my job if that had been the case!

Apparently, it was snowing up quite a storm outside, but we were in a windowless conference center, fairly removed from the world outside. This is what it looked like at home:

We also apparently elected a president and quite a few senators and congresspeople while we were away at retreat as well . . .  kind of surreal how the world marches on! It was strange actually; I kept checking my iPad for news, but it didn't seem that anyone had their TVs on or were talking (much) about politics. I did, however, get cornered a few times (I'm really not sure why!) and was asked my opinion on presidential politics. A very dicey question in Utah! But no worries . . .  I'm not about to launch into a diatribe on my stance on foreign policy, healthcare, or even more delicate issues! Not in this post, at least! ;-)

Now, back to the retreat itself! First of all, as I mentioned yesterday, I got there a day early so that I wouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to drive up to Park City on Wednesday morning. I'm so glad I did! I was able to get my bearings, set up my sewing area, meet some people, and, best of all, hang with my roomie Sue! I wish I could link to her blog, but she doesn't blog . . . yet (hint, hint, Sue!). Sue, knows that I'm a bit out of my element here in Utah, as I'm really an East Coast ocean girl in my heart and soul. And being the sweetie that she is, look at what she gave me as a retreat roomie gift!!

A whole fat quarter bundle of Emily Herrick's totally fabulous Going Coastal collection! Yay! I'm beyond thrilled with these goodies! I've never had a whole, entire fat quarter bundle before and I'm frankly somewhat beside myself! Sue had given me some samples from the line a while back, but that just whetted my appetite for more, and now I have it all! If you don't know this line, definitely check it out. It has flamingos, sea kelp, lobsters, madras, sailboats and other fun designs. So fabulous!

I have a great pattern of Emily's, Cabana, that I already have in mind for the fabric. I have the person in mind to give the finished quilt to, as well, but that part is top secret as I think she reads the blog . . . so more on her secret identity and her special story after the quilt is gifted. I will blog along as work on this quilt, however, so you will get to see this one in progress!

There were some goodies for sale at the retreat, but I was oh so restrained!! $3 half yards, patterns, and all sorts of other goodies. I'm sure you can just imagine what the sale area looked like . . .  sort of like the stores on Black Friday (after Thanksgiving). Nothing like offering sales on fabric to quilters! It was bedlam. I braved the bevy of ladies, but I held myself back and this is all I succumbed to:

Pretty restrained, eh?! I'm fairly proud of myself!

Now, on a non-retreat front, I have some exciting news . . . I won something as part of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival!! If you haven't gone over to her site yet to check out the totally amazing talent on the festival, stop reading this right now and head on over to see! I mean it! I'll still be here when you come back! I summoned up my courage and posted my Mama Lilly quilt on the BQF this year, which was fairly daunting given the gorgeous and completely professional work people presented, but as this was my first year of sewing and my first year I completed any quilts I thought it was a good risk to take. And I was rewarded with a $25 gift certificate at Fabricworm! Clearly not for my quilt, just one of those lucky draws! Yay! Because who doesn't love fabric?! And Fabricworm is a great store with an amazing selection of distinctive fabrics.

Gratitude

I'm not sure about you, but I'm one of those people who doesn't ask for help very well. In fact, it's kind of pathological. I would give away my last dollar to someone who needed it, I would drive to the ends of the Earth for a friend (or even a stranger), but I just am not good at asking even very close friends or family for help--even when I most need it. Even when it's offered, I'm not very good at accepting help. Although in theory I believe we all live in a community and we do best supporting and relying on each other, deep down it's as if I think I'm the exception; that I'm somehow supposed to be totally self-reliant and to lean even a little on someone else means that I'm deficient.

This may be why I find moving to be so stressful--it, by definition, cannot be done alone. Think about it: how many pieces of furniture are in your home that cannot be carried by only one person? Nevertheless, for most of the moves in my life, and there have been far too many, I have moved myself without asking for or accepting any help. About a month ago, when some of my sewing friends heard that Karen and I were moving, they offered their help and the use of their trucks. I was so moved that they would offer their help. Of course I wasn't going to follow up and ask them for their help (!), but their very offer was so moving to me-- that people I hadn't known for very long would volunteer their time, truck, and muscles on such an onerous task! I tucked their gift of an offer away in that place in your heart where you store such things, and then I returned home where I continued packing.

A few weeks passed, and I discovered, much to my dismay, that the house I was moving into was left in terribly dirty shape. Although the landlord was quickly responsive, it delayed our move by several days and added a great deal of stress to our already stressful move. We were juggling the cleaning of the new place, the moving of all our stuff (and there is an awful lot!!) from one place to a mile away to the new place, and preparing to clean out our new place (because unlike the tenants who left our new place in squalid shape, we felt obligated to leave our place in an even better state than we had found it).

Around that time, I received a text from my sewing buddy April, asking me if I was going to be at our upcoming sew day. I responded that given the move and the cleaning, I was going to have to give it a miss. She wrote back that they should turn the sew day into a "clean Shortcookie's house day" instead. I jokingly wrote back that I loved the idea, but was horrified at the thought of other people having to clean up dog fur and dust and such. I went back to my cleaning and packing and didn't give the text another thought . . .  until later in the day when I saw a message on my phone, telling me that indeed, sew day had been cancelled and that the very next day I was going to have four sewing friends showing up on our doorstep with rags in hand to clean out our old place.

Karen and I both teared up--what an amazing gift!! First thing Friday morning, April, Ella, Jenny, and Sue (and Miss Olivia, Ella's sweet little miss) arrived with red bandanas on their hair (with one waiting for me!) raring and ready to work. They tore through the house, vacuuming, cleaning baseboards, bathrooms, dusting, leaving the house completely spotless and smelling wonderfully fresh!

They couldn't stay for long (because they had all had to arrange for childcare in order to make the 1-2 hour drive as well as the several hours of cleaning), but we brought them over to see the new house and treated them to lunch on the porch as the very smallest of thank you's for the most special of gifts.

I learned a powerful lesson that day: I have spent a large part of my life trying not to impose on people, trying not ask too much, and trying to be self-reliant and independent. As a result, I think I have shut some people out by not letting them in when they offered to help in the past. Part of friendship is not just the generosity of giving, but also the warmth and openness of accepting others' generosity. I am so touched and so grateful for the amazing gift that Sue, Jenny, Ella, and April gave us -- not only in giving up time that they could have spent with their families or cleaning their own homes, not only in scrubbing our home clean, but in teaching me an invaluable lesson about opening up my heart and accepting help.

Paying it Forward -- there's a giveaway!

December 19, 2011

Okay now, so this is clearly not a Christmas picture, at least not here in Utah in December! This is a photo I took several years ago when I was fortunate enough to be able to travel from Beijing, China to Lhasa, Tibet on a train and I saw this rainbow. The entire trip was extraordinary; this rainbow just a symbol of how remarkable every interaction and every place we stopped was along the way. Before I began sewing and quilting over this past year, I was drawing and working with colored pencils, trying to capture the intense colors that are depicted in the amazing religious and cultural art of the Tibetans. I'll share some of that in some of my future blogs. The colors and images are stunning--lots of vibrant colors used both in religious art and also to depict nature. I've started to think about using textiles (which the Tibetans also do), but through a modern quilting approach to capture some of the Tibetan images and colors which are still swirling around my head.

Tied to this project idea for me is also the idea of gratitude and generosity. The Tibetans have experienced (and continue to experience) oppression and occupation at the hands of the Chinese (although there are dissenting perspectives on the history of the relationship between these two lands), but the grace and persistence and generosity of the Tibetans I met was extraordinary. I had powerful interactions with men, women, and children there during the too short time I visited and the deep spirituality and presence of those people stay with me.

This leads me to my wanting to find more ways in my life in general to give more of myself to others to improve the condition of the world around me. Karen and I participated in a very modest way recently in a Christmas drive organized by an amazing young teenaged woman who works at a favorite cafe of ours. On her own she spearheaded a drive to get toys and items of need for children and their single moms who were re-starting their lives after difficult circumstances. Proving that one person can make a significant impact, this young woman inspired enough volunteers to contribute enough to support almost 100 families! In addition to the toys and other goods that we donated, I made Christmas stockings for the children and their mother, so that they would have something special of their own every year to pull out to remember that they are special. I have so enjoyed the personal gratification of designing and creating new things, but I am mindful of how fortunate I continue to be in my life, so I am committing this year to donate a good portion of what I sew to charity.

With this idea of paying it forward in mind, although perhaps in a slightly different way, I'm picking up on Janine at Rainbow Hare Quilt's 'pay it forward' post, and offering my very own goodie giveaway! First, I suggest that you check out Janine's fabulous blog. She's so creative and has been a wicked busy bunny sewing away in preparation for Christmas (sure, just make the rest of us look bad!). I participated in something like this last year through Facebook and I was floored by the amazing painting that a friend sent me. Nothing more special than a handmade goodie, especially when it comes unexpectedly sometime during the year!

So, here's the deal:

1. I will make a handmade goodie for the first Three people to comment (I'm trusting I have that many people who stop by occasionally to read my blog??!). I will happily send internationally.

2. The goodie will arrive sometime during 2012 (when you least expect it!!)

3. You've gotta pay to play . . . you must commit to send a handmade goodie to the first 3 people to respond to the blog post that you will post on your own blog

4. You must have your own blog (so that you can post your own pay it forward post!)

5. When you leave a comment, I'd welcome a suggestion of how we can add a twist to this pay it forward "game" that includes a pay it forward to the universe element . . . .

Of Course, She's Pink!

So, Christmas has come a bit early to the household here. Perhaps it was the desperation that led me to try sewing with a 90 year-old sewing machine, or perhaps it was that, when faced with insomnia at 4 in the morning, I turned immediately to the sewing machine. At any rate, my sweetie treated me with a trip to the local sewing machine store where I got to feast my eyes and fingers and (foot) on the latest and greatest machines -- working on my fabulous (but admittedly a bit trying) 40 year-old Singer I simply had no idea that computerized machines were that easy?! And not only did I get to play with them there, but I got to take home one for my very own! And she's pink!!

No more fighting with my nemesis the thread tension (the nifty little computer actually mostly takes care of it for you!); no more fighting with the fabric trying to wrest it back in line (you don't really need to hold onto the fabric!); no more squinting to thread the needle (there is actually a needle threader!). . . . now I just have to get used to all the cool features and stitches and such! I can sew so so so much more quickly and at such a higher level with this machine, which is a good thing, since I have a lot of Christmas gifts to whip up in short order! Thank you early Santa!! My sweetie so loves and spoils me!

More to catch up on, but oh so tired! Up at 4:30 this morning with insomnia and a migraine--and sewing since then. So time for mindless TV and then bed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I'd like to start my list of gratitude by announcing the arrival of a new member of the family:

I found "Betty" on Craigslist for an amazing $50! And she came in her original gorgeous oak cabinet! And she's in perfect working order! Alright, so she does need a new cable (that is a ribbon rigged up to make the hand crank work in the meantime), but she works like a charm! As best as I can tell, she's a Singer 128K, making her roughly 90 years old (if I were so bold as to tell a lady's age!). The bobbin is soooo cool -- it is set within a shuttle inside the machine--and yet even on this old machine there is still a bobbin winder! The machine is actually not much different from my 1970 Singer . . . not sure whether that makes my 1970 Singer old, or the technology timeless? And given that my Susie Singer is currently in the shop with a broken gear for another week or so, I now don't have to worry about the withdrawal pains I was suffering from this morning when I woke up. And my fingers really can't take any more of that pesky hand stitching thing! Finishing a binding by hand is one thing, but sewing it on and then finishing it was just a bit more than I had scheduled for my down-to-the-wire tablerunner!

So, welcome to the family Betty! And the name is in honor of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth "Betty" Keating Plunkett, who was born to Irish immigrants in the 1880s and who worked as a seamstress. There's an amazing photograph in my mother's home of Betty in her hand-made, but ever so elegant wedding dress in 1937. Nope, I can't quite aspire to Betty's sewing skills, but I like the thought that she's with me when I sew!

And so, now on to other gratitude. This has been a busy year, with some definitely trying personal and professional aspects. Nonetheless, I am so deeply grateful for the life I live and for the abundant love I have in my life. I am blessed by a family who sticks by me and who I enjoy being with (although who I miss dearly now that I liver farther away from). I have parents who are wonderfully warm, tender, complex, funny, special people who bless me by being in my life. I am also so blessed by having found the love of my life, someone who can make me laugh by being completely silly one minute, who can hold a deeply serious, smart conversation, and who can contain the messy, complex world that resides inside my brain. I am one lucky woman! I am also so so lucky to have found such great friends throughout my life and adventures. I may move to new states, but I never leave them behind in my heart. And finally, I am so grateful to my Sophie and my Zoey, my furry lovey girls are so dearly important to me and provide a profoundly wise and deep love that has changed my life!

In a year that has occasionally been personally difficult, and in a time that I know that has been financially trying for all, I am working hard to remember in my thoughts and actions all those who are struggling every day for the basics, including life, laughter, and love. I want to remember, not just today, and not just in the holiday season, that I am blessed enough that I can always share.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Running to catch up

Done at last! Down to the wire, but finished with the tablerunner for Susan's Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap. Just as I was finishing my quilting, I snapped a gear in my sewing machine and everything went south. Fortunately, all I had left was the binding, so I ended up doing that all by hand. Originally, I had three houses and three trees, but it was far too long, so I lopped off a tree, which made it look more balanced and also shorter. I hand quilted around the trees and houses with perle cotton, using red, green, and aqua. I then machine quilted the linen in concentric half rectangles.

This is what it looks like in full:

I can't believe I finally finished it! Just in time to send it out way across the ocean to my secret swap partner! I'm sorry to see it go! But, look what I got from my fabulously talented secret swap partner Emily!


Isn't this so gorgeous!! The packages and tree are all pieced, and there are ribbons on the packages that use actual ribbon applique. I totally and completely love it! It is done perfectly and will cover my table every Christmas forever! Thanks so much Emily!

This has been my first swap ever, and it has been such a fabulous experience. It was a bit daunting, with such a talented group of women participating, but they provided great inspiration, encouragement, and humor. I can't believe how much I've learned over the span of the past few months! Rumor has it that Susan is spear-heading another swap post-Christmas; count me in!

Sew Grateful!

Yes, this puppy (a.k.a., blob of fabric) is finally actually beginning to look a little bit like a tablerunner! And that's a mighty, mighty good thing as its due date for shipping is in a few days and the anxiety is starting to build up!

Two days of totally amazing inspiration, community, delicious food, hilarity, and humming machines around me at Pamela's sewing retreat kept me going and gave me the encouragement and much needed advice to turn the corner! What a phenomenal community of women! I didn't know a soul going into the weekend and I feel as if I have a new bunch of dear friends after two long, exhausting, but recharging days of sewing, laughing, and companionship! Many thanks to Pam for working so hard on such an extraordinary event! She arranged for two trunk shows: Amy Ellis shared her gorgeous quilts on Friday and talked a bit about her Modern Basics book, and Emily Herrick talked about her fabric collections and shared her stunning quilts (much as I tried, I was unsuccessful in sneaking off with her handiwork!). We were lucky enough to get some of her patterns in adorable little envelope bags that Pamela made for us and filled with all sorts of goodies (she promises to have a tutorial for these on her blog)! I was lucky enough to have Miss Emily as my table partner, so I was both entertained by her wit and also blessed by her wisdom. Thanks Emily for helping me pull the tablerunner top together!

It's a funny kind of thing, the blogging world. You feel as if you know people from reading about them on a daily basis, so when you meet them you kind of recognize them, you know about them, but they (quite reasonably) know nothing about you. So it was great to actually officially meet Amy (of diary of a quilter) officially, and to add some new blogs (and friends) to the list: April, Ella, Maria, and Holly. And to the blogging holdouts: don't worry Sue, I'm still keeping you on the "friends" list!

We also had a simply fabulous hand appliqué class from Jeannette Hartvigsen. Jeannette first showed her amazing, stunning work, then taught us the techniques. We then practiced on a heart. A long, slow learning curve, but so so helpful! And just in time for my top secret Christmas project!

Truly, without the wisdom, humor, encouragement, and time together this weekend with all these women, I would still be sitting in my sewing room with all the separate pieces of my various wonky houses and trees, in tears, with little idea of how to pull it all together -- and without having had the great fun that I did! Thanks to all!