“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
― Mother Teresa

What have I been making of late? Lots of little things, (I've started making my own clothes again!), but the most important thing that has been made in my life this week is a bunch of new love, with the advent of a new baby.  My son and his wife had a new son, Andrew, born on 3 December.  It's amazing isn't it?  No matter how much love you may have in your life, there is always room for so much more.  And to hold a new little life - one's heart just swells and overflows.

And it's now time for me to head back into the hospital to hold him again.  I feel amazingly blessed and full of gratitude.

Finished..or perfect..

"Finished is better than perfect"...I forget who it was said that... but this week I decided to take it to heart.

I've almost finished an Amish style 9-patch, and have restarted working on a jelly roll star (fig Tree Quilts pattern) that I started in a class a couple of years ago.  I stopped working on it when I discovered that the  star points that I'd pieced in class on one machine turned out to be a different size to the ones I completed at home on another machine... I couldn't make them match up without pulling one whole set of star bits to pieces or starting again completely...I was using an out-of-date fabric, couldn't get more, and with all of those diamonds cut on the bias, I couldn't unpick and start again.  I'd never get them to match up no matter what machine they were sewn on.  So, this week, being back in Dubai, I decided that I could just sit and stitch, by hand if necessary to make them go together.  My centres are a good centimetre out between one half of the star and the other, but the whole block came together.  If the other star centres do the same thing then I'll just applique circles over the centre...who is going to look at a finished quilt and say...I know why she put those circles there! ...are they?  well, I dare them to say it my face anyway!! Lol.
The 9-patch I started eons ago, and put it aside when I didn't have the right fabric to do the corner posts.  Again, I've decided that it's better to have a finished quilt and a compromise.  And I really like the finished result.  Now I just need to go to the fabric souk to get some black fabric to make the borders.  And in Dubai I don't think that the right black fabric will be hard to find..famous last words, but every second female here is in black...  then it will be deciding whether I wait till I go back to Australia to quilt it on my machine there, or quilt it by hand here.  The machine quilting is speaking to me, but on the other hand, that's a while away.  I can't quilt it on my machine here..it's a Singer Featherweight, which has the smallest throat ever I think!  But it does do a lovely straight stitch.
I have also decided to 'go back to school' so to speak.  I made a quilt top earlier this year and I was really unhappy with my piecing and accuracy. I bought Harriet Hargraves 'Quilt University' book 1 of the series and will start from there.  I've read the first few chapters and already learnt some very useful things, some of which I'd already learnt piecing that awful quilt top earlier this year, like trying to keep your fabrics similar weights!
Well, typing this up won't get anything concrete done.  Ciao for now... and remember...if it's a problem getting it done...finished is better than perfect!  But I do like perfect...

                                                          The 9-patch Amish style quilt...with borders yet to be added.

                                                                   The very difficult jelly star - first finished block..

Rationalisation

"Rationality is holding ourselves accountable to the bounds of logic and evidence, even when it is uncomfortable to do so." from the website www.wisdomcommons.org

For the past month we have been opening boxes that have been stored under our house for the last 8 years!  We no longer remembered what was really in them, and it has been a kind of Christmas month, but also a month of having to rationalise why we are holding on to things that we haven't seen for over eight years.  We moved from a big house to a very small house.  Sofas, sideboards, tables, bookcases, you name it, it was under the house and couldn't fit upstairs.  The sofas went a while ago, after the neighbour's chooks caused a rat plague.. But the rest has been sitting there. 

So, we finally couldn't bear it any longer and decided that enough was enough.  It started with my youngest son, who is at home looking after our house while my dh and I actually live overseas.. I came home for a break, and we have continued his beginnings.  Many many boxes to the tip, many many boxes to charity, and some stuff to a new self storage unit. 

The 'uncomfortable to do so..' bit is my having to get rid of books and fabric that I just know I am never going to use, no matter how much I like it.  The bounds of logic and evidence say so...

I will start up a new blog, and put up a bunch of books and fabric on it over the next few days, so watch this space for the address.  There's bound to be something someone might have a home for.

That's my WOW for Wednesday this week!  No pics...the mess we are in downstairs is unbearable and a picture is more than anyone should have to see! Lol.

Update:  some books were uploaded to EBay... look for griffo1910 and see which books I added there.

Happiness is...

"Happiness lies in our own backyard, but it's probably well hidden by crabgrass."    Dell

I had to laugh when I read that today...I was looking out at the back yard, a mess of weeds, after weeks of rain.  And I knew that I should really have been out there, weeding and mowing.  But there is a baby quilt I want to get finished!  And that's really pure happiness.  And it's kind of for my own back yard.

Just finishing the hand quilted hearts in the plain blocks, then will have to get the binding on, a quick wash and it's done.  Hopefully by the end of tomorrow morning.  I found the fabric at the Quilters Store last week, I think they're such cheerful fabrics. The big blobby one is a Robert Kaufman 'Celebrate Seuss', the smaller one in the nine patches is called Luna by Gail Fo...rest is cut off!, and the multi is an Andover fabric that I can't see the rest of the name of.  There is a rather nice freehand check in the border - a Lucy Cousins for Andover fabric, covered up though by the Solufleece that's still on it, where I drew the 'egg & dart' quilting pattern.  I saw these happy fabrics and had to have them for just this purpose.... a very quick quilt to say how happy I am about the new baby that's coming. Full of machine quilting mistakes as it's months and months since I've done any, (and I wasn't that great to start with!), to give to my son and his partner for their baby due in December.  Not the quilt that will be the 'special' quilt, I have a lot of applique to get done for that one, but a quick quilt for the floor, the car, for throwing up on, etc!  A little happy quilt to be used.  I've also been making hand bound white flannelette bunny rugs, and white muslin wrappers too.  Much better to do than weeding the crabgrass out of the lawn in the backyard.  :-)

Serenity

"What if happiness were found in the serenity of simple pleasures?"
                                                                                                                - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

And how much more simple a pleasure can hand applique be?  Or a cup of coffee with a friend?  Or the time to sit and read a book?

This week sees the completion of the 85th small basket block - nearly halfway to the 198 I need to get finished.  And sitting hand sewing is such a lovely way to 'do nothing'.   This is the photo from the end of May, but my phone battery is dead and still charging.  21 June 2012

Update: 5 July 
I've now finished just over 100...slowly getting there!

Waiting

Wait for your result..

It is for us to make the effort.
The result is always in God's hands.                               - Mahatma Gandhi

I love this quote that I found today.  It is a sort of confirmation of what I have experienced this past six-plus months.  I have finally finished a quilt top that I was asked to make.  It has been a real  hardship to make, and I am still trying to work out why it was such a hard quilt top to make. I certainly had to  make an effort.  Nothing in this quilt top went together easily.  But after all the effort, it's finished, and I hope Jenny didn't mind the very long wait.  I don't have a picture of it finished, but of it spread out waiting for the final sewing up. So, it's not a Work in Progress, which is what WOW is supposed to be for, but I really felt it was an appropriate one for the day, as it has been a WIP for such a long time!  It was started on a Bernina 440QE, but half the small 4 1/2 square in a square blocks were finished on a Singer Featherweight, and they were far more easily pieced accurately on this lovely little machine.  I ended up piecing them all together for the centre square of the quilt by tacking them all by hand.  Otherwise I just couldn't get the seams to match up.  Then piecing the larger blocks to this I had to tack them by  hand again.  And I pulled out so many of the blocks that ended up not square or inaccurate.  I am so happy to have finally finished this quilt!! The final result will rest with the person Jenny is getting to do the quilting of course...and hopefully God will help make it perfect!

Don't Regret...

"Don’t regret any of your past because at the time it felt right and made you smile." - Anna Dickson

I have been looking at fabrics online, needing some fabrics for the quilt I'm working on now, and this range (Lily Ashby's Tradewinds range), seen on Hancock's page made me smile.  It was instant transportation back to the 60s.  I doodled these kinds of images, I wore these patterns and colours.  I loved being in the midst of that wonderful hippie era.  I wore headbands.  I painted flowers on my face.  I went barefoot.  I loved Indian caftan style dresses in wonderful oriental patterns. It was so good to be alive.

Seeing this fabric came hot on the heels of watching a cable movie yesterday about Woodstock.  All that amazing music. Jefferson Airplane's album "Surrealistic Pillow" was the first album I ever bought for myself..loved 'Somebody to Love' and 'White Rabbit'.  Iconic of that era.

So much that was good...the space age, and after the walk on the moon we all believed we'd soon be tripping space like we now fly from continent to continent. Flowers painted on my face.  Discarding shoes I went barefoot everywhere, I wore headbands, Indian kaftans, silver jewellery, went to crazy parties, danced under blue-light.

Not that then was the be all and end all, Now is great too.  I love so much about now.  The internet, e-books, smartphones, digital cameras, cheap air travel, my lovely modern sewing machine, the availability of so much fabric, the sheer wonder of the availability of the whole world in one way or another.  And so saying, despite now being in Dubai, it's actually only 15 flying hours away from home, half a world away.

But looking back to the 60s, it made me smile.  It felt so very right at the time.  And it makes me smile now...and White Rabbit is playing in the background.

“Gentleness towards self and others makes life a little lighter.”

Which is as it may be, but I think I might have been somewhat too gentle with myself of late...and as a consequence have a backload of things to be done.
However, I have been working on a number of things, and one project which I will link to Esther's WOW for Wednesday are some basket blocks I have been making, from Sue Daley's basket template (Patchwork with Busyfingers).  they're an inch or so bigger than a Dear Jane block, and a lot easier! I try to finish a minimum of three a day, doesn't always happen, but I have completed just over 50 now, only 148 to go! They're kind of addictive, but as I'm making them using Sharon Schamber's applique stabiliser as the backing for the blocks it's a kind of labour intensive process.  If I'm not sewing them, I'm preparing them, and they seem to take up a lot of time! Good thing I'm enjoying making them.  I'm hoping to incorporate some other pieced blocks with the basket blocks, and see those little leaf shapes that get cut out of the basket...? I've gone truly mad and I make them into leaf shapes for appliqueing too...I think I'll use them in a border on the quilt.  This is one quilt that I can't wait to get finished...and having decided to try to make three a day, the end is visible...just.

Doing Nothing

"Let my doing nothing when I have nothing to do become untroubled in its depth of peace like the evening in the seashore when the water is silent." - Rabindraganath Tagore (1861-1941)

I've been thinking of how one goes about accomplishing this.  I'm great at doing nothing, but not with an untroubled depth of peace!  A wonderful goal to aim for...achieved by having every skerrick of one's work and obligations up to date.  The peace of achieving that... which means, not doing nothing.

Paradigms

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."  William Shakespeare

I have been thinking this week about what makes for happiness in ones life.  There is a situation in my life that has caused a lot of personal unhappiness for a very long time.  It hasn't gone away, doesn't seem to change, so the unhappiness has lingered, a kind of background, or undercurrent to my life.  Then on Sunday, something happened to change it.  The situation didn't change.  I did.  I suddenly saw it in a new light.  And suddenly I felt the unhappiness lift, it wasn't a burden any more.  I know the situation will always be there unless something outside my life changes it.  I can't change it.  But my thinking about it changed, I had a paradigm shift, an epiphany of sorts, and as a consequence I've felt light, and happy all week.  And more loving and accepting.  And it's all about paradigms, or as William said so eloquently, 'nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so'.

As for the paradigm I see in the current applique I am working on...it keeps changing...I had it fairly firmly set  in my mind what I was going to add to the central applique block  (that I started in a workshop with Sharon Schamber) and blogged about here last week.  I was going to add a sawtooth inner border then some more applique, but I discarded that.  I have been busy making clamshells for the past several days,  and now that I have enough to lay out and look at, I'm not sure if that's what I really want now after all.  Down one side I have put two layers of clamshells, green nearest the centre and the pinks on the outside, at the top there is a single row of alternating pinks and greens.  I rather think, that if I go with the clamshells that the double border looks best.  Then would come another border of applique.  But first I have to decide if I want clamshells there at all.  What do you think?  Another idea for it is to put the centre on point and put more applique in the triangles that would be need to be added, then put the clamshells after that.  I hate it when quilts just grow minds of their own, but don't speak plainly!  And the visual distraction of the quilt off to the side doesn't help the photo of the clamshells and the applique either! :-D

Paradise

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." 
— Jorge Luis Borges

Saw this quote on Google today, and it resonates with me.  I have books everywhere, on everything.  In front of me right now there is Kaffe Fassett's Spectacular Shapes, Brian Tracy's (a business writer) 'Focal Point', a Country Home Ideas magazine, and that's just on the desk in front of me.  On and in my bedside table there are piles of books, next to the bed are more, and the bookshelves aren't full, they're overflowing...and I cull books whenever I can.  But somehow the piles remain...

And I make resolutions not to buy any more, but to just borrow them from the library or the guild, or my cottage group...but guess what, sometimes I just have to have the book I borrowed, or I can't wait long enough for the library to bring it in, or it's one I just absolutely positively can't live without, like Barb Adams and Alma Allen's recent book 'Country Inn'...I carry that one with me everywhere at the moment, it makes me itch to sew, and to cook.  The pictures are gorgeous, the quilts and their fabrics are beautiful.  

But first I have to finish things, like last week's applique block which is on the sewing machine at present, and two quilts waiting pin-basting and quilting, and all the redwork blocks I'm embroidering hoping to get them done by Christmas.  So, this Wednesday, what I'm most working on, are the redworks...

Potential

"Every great (wo)man has become great, every successful (wo)man has succeeded, in proportion as (s)he has confined his(her) powers to one particular channel". Orison Swett Marden (from Brian Tracy's 'Focal Point')

I was lucky last week to get a cancellation in a one day workshop with Sharon Schamber, on her machine applique methods.  If ever there was a great example of Marden's quotation above, it is Sharon Schamber.  She has most certainly focused all her talents in one amazing direction.  The quilts and blocks that she brought for us to see were most amazing.  Her workmanship, her skill, her artistic talent, are all phenomenal, and it is evident why she has won so many quilt shows and awards.  She is a really wonderful example of the power of focus, to unearth and meet one's potential.
I came home and looked at all my various things that I'm interested in and do, some complete, some half complete, but nowhere do I see the focus that is apparent in Sharon's work, in her perfection.  She inspired me to complete the sample piece we started on Friday as soon as possible, so I have been working on it in all of my spare time. I have completed the preparation (the photo below), now I have to do the easy part, the sewing.  Then I plan to make borders on the sides and an appliqued row above and below the central panel, to complete a baby quilt.
And I'm determined to aim for some of the perfection that was evident in Sharon's work.  Not for show, but for my own satisfaction, to see if I can begin to achieve some of the possible potential that is currently hiding in my love of working with fabric.

Progress

'The good news is that we are making progress. The bad news is that we're doing too little and moving much too slowly'.                - Sam Nunn 

I would have to say that every day I guess I make progress, but whether it's progress forwards or backwards I'm not sure.  I've started making lists again, and when I follow my lists, things happen, and I tick the lists and I feel as though I'm accomplishing things.  But when I misplace the lists, or ignore them, I'm sure I still make progress, but whether it is a forwards or backwards progress is a moot point!  Mostly it's not progress as delineated by the list though.

I have been reading Brian Tracy again in an effort to progress in a few areas that are somewhat lax, namely in the office!  He has great advice, and he's all for lists too.  Lots of lists, one for today, one for the week, one for the month, one for the year, one for life... well, possibly not quite like that, but you get the picture.  

I'm currently away from home, and normally I enjoy being away, love visiting people, doing different things, but as a result of Brian Tracy I want to be home, making my lists and making some 'progress'! I'm just not sure that that really is progress...

I'm currently trying to progress in one specific area ... finishing some doll clothes and accessories for a special 5 year old's new doll (middle doll above) that I gave her for her 5th birthday before I leave here at the end of the week.  It is slow progress as the knitted patterns, for the specific doll, are complicated, don't have a specific swatch test for the knitted items, (hence either too big or too small at the end of the project), and of the fabric patterns, the same, either too big or too small.  The sewn clothes are not such a problem as I can make the clothes up in the complete item in paper and know how much to alter them.  The doll and patterns are made by the same person, (have any of you made any ak traditions dolls or clothes?) I've tried contacting them but it is rather frustrating..no answer to emails, or phone calls and I only have a few days.  So, in order to progress and get at least a few things finished I've had to start making up my own patterns, and altering those which I can alter without changing the overall effect.  I'll post pictures of the finished items next week when I'm home and can upload my photos to my own computer from my phone.  In the meantime here are a couple of pictures from the doll manufacturers website to show you how lovely the finished things, and dolls, are...or should be!

 

It's good to be alone..

in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought.  - James Douglas

I actually enjoy being alone often, whether it's dawn, dark or all the hours in between.  But I love being with people too.  But when one is alone one can do exactly as one pleases, without thought for any other.  Being alone can be healing and allow time for your spirit to grow.  I like being alone.  But not lonely.

This last month has seen a few things in my sewing room finished, and a few on the way, and a few coming along... The beginnings of a quilt above...

And one started in a workshop, nearly finished.   And this stocking, for a friend, finished and posted away.

Can't get it to turn up the right way no matter how many times I save it and change it! Ah well.

Feelings

"Feelings are everywhere -- be gentle." - J Masai

Doesn't that make you stop and think?  and it's so true, everyone reacts because they have feelings.  Whether someone reacts because one is kind or because one is mean, there is always a reaction.  Try smiling at people you pass in the street, it's rare not to get a smile back.  I was feeling a bit flat the other day, and a woman I passed in the supermarket just smiled at me.  A proper smile, with her eyes all crinkled, and I couldn't help but smile back, and I felt better, and had a smile for the rest of the day.  A gentle act that made my day better.

Something else that always makes a day better is the company of a good friend.  I came across this blog today - Stitching Cow by Lenna Green of LIttle Green Cottage - with a free block of the month stitchery she has done in conjunction with Homespun magazine.  The block of the month is called A Faithful Friend.  Lenna is giving away a whole kit, worth $248!!, to make the quilt along with the blocks!!!  What a wonderful prize... go here to see if you can win... it'd be lovely if you won, even though I'd love to win it myself!!

Link address to use is:
http://www.stitchingcow.com/patterns/173/Free+Block+of+the+Month+Quilt+Pattern
The stitcheries are really pretty...   here are a couple from Homespun's site. 

Now go and smile at someone!!

WOW

better known as WIPs on Wednesdays, initiated by Esther.  I have just realised how very long it is since I last put up a blog of any kind.

But first, my saying for the day, (actually, almost for the year so far!):
"Develop an interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.  Forget yourself". - Henry Miller 1891-1980
And in line with the resolution that I made earlier this week, to have an adventure each week.  I am still trying to think what this week's adventure will be, but I have till Sunday night to do/experience/create it!

Now for WOW.  Today my WIP was my relationship with my little nephew who lives over the road, with his two younger brothers.  I was invited to be his surrogate grandmother as his were both unable to come. What a lovely morning.  Gorgeous little voices singing, rambunctious children running free in the playground, studious children concentrating on the school teacher while chess moves and manoeuvres were gone over and run through. Then a lovely morning tea in the new school hall.  A lovely morning, made all the more pleasurable by my nephew (the thoughtful looking one just left of centre between 2 girls) running off when we left saying, "love you!".

My other WOW for the day: a couple of Round Robin blocks that need to finished and in the mail tonight, but I can't put up pictures as they are meant to be a surprise, and also a practice quilt, machine quilted and appliqued, begun in a workshop with Pam Hill, which I also can't show you as the server keeps rejecting the picture for some reason.  I'll try again later.

Silence

"The morning sun, the new sweet earth, and the great silence" -TC McLuhan

Silence, is there silence in a city? In the middle of the night? In the early morning? At dusk? I don't think so.  And I'm really aware of noise today.  I went to put the bins out for collection and huddled behind a bush is a baby possum, obviously fallen from a branch or a wire.  It is trying to make itself smaller than small.  And I hear every noise in our street, aware that each one is probably making this little creature more & more scared.  The garbage truck roaring & screeching &clanking, my neighbour driving nails into the new cladding on his walls, the saw going on the new house up the street, our dogs barking.  All noises that I normally wouldn't hear at all, but that I am super-sensitive to, aware that the possum is probably hearing them all only too acutely.  So, no picnic in the park today, but a wait until animal rescue come.  Soon I hope.

A Place of Calm

"Even in the heart of a city there can be a place of calm. Doors shut and curtains closed, a light against the dark, [surrounded] by dear, accustomed things, we can withdraw and find ourselves again" Pam Brown (1928-)

After the urgent rush and bustle, the anxiety, that creating a happy Christmas creates, the sudden calm, the still waters of the following days are balm for the soul.  These few days leading up to New Year, when most business is still closed, when people are away, life takes on a calmness, slows down. I take time for things that make me happy, sewing, reading, cooking satisfying things like mushroom soup.  If it is clear tomorrow I might pack a picnic, some good reading and a blanket and find a shady tree in a park to contemplate leaves and clouds, and quietness.

Idleness...

"I loafe and invite my soul" - Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

After a long and hectic Christmas Day, on Boxing Day I did just that.  I loafed.  I read a book over several cups of tea in the morning.  I hand-quilted a quilt for a half hour.  I went shopping with my sister-in-law, for nothing in particular, and we laughed and laughed and had fun.  It was a good day for my soul.

Panic at Christmas

"What a fine lesson is conveyed to the mind - to watch only for the smiles and neglect the frowns of fate, to compose our lives of bright and gentle moments, turning always to the sunny side of things,and letting the rest slip from our imaginations, unheeded or fogotten"  - William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

The quote for the day, as I wake up thinking, Oh my God, it's only five hours till eveyone arrives, and I'm so not ready!!  A quiet moment therefore, a quick cup of tea, some mental composing for a day of bright and gentle moments... and into it!

Happy Christmas everyone.