Everything is Beginning

I am so excited to think that in the next three days I will begin working on two of my Doll Quilt Swap8 quilts and two of my Fussy Quilt Swap blocks. I thought I had them all picked out and then of course later last night I went through more of my fabrics and decided to change some, well a little on some and make an entirely different one on some more. Is this what keeps happening that the more time you have and the more you look at other peoples the more you keep changing your own? I really like my ideas so for the next three days I'm going to try not to look at any other blogs, groups, postings, etc., or else I'll have about twenty by the end of the month. Everyone's looks so much better than I imagine mine to be that I am easily swayed when I start looking around. I have to keep focused on "mindfulness" the NEW phase of the year in psychotherapy which basically means notice the things around you and enjoy them and so I will try to be mindful and remind myself that I am a beginner quilter and in ten years (when I'm really old) I could be a great quilter and it all doesn't matter anyway because I really love quilting, every aspect of it to looking at patterns and fabrics to haning them on the wall or putting thm on a sofa or a bed and that's what this is really all about anyway! Right!? I still hope mine don't look immediately like the "new person who hasn't done much quilting and boy can you tell, ha, ha," person. I want to at least to be identified as the "new person who put a lot of time into thinking and planning her blocks and her doll quilt and did great for a beginner quilter." It's my new mantra. Tomorrow I'm going to take pictures of my new bookcase and all my new fabrics and glimpses of what I've picked out for my blocks and my swap. My swap person and I are very different so I'm going to try to incorporate a little of her and a little of me so my swaps (I'm going to try to make two) show us as we are together because she has really been a part of me so far and will always be because I'll remember that she did this for me and wasn't I so lucky to have someone volunteer to do somethng so nice for someone (me) she didn't even know and she must bee quite a lady and I hope we get to meet someday. Tomorrow there will be a lot of pictures. Can someone tell me how to make those boxes made up of about twelve to sixteen smaller boxes? The really cool people have one at a time kind of pop out at you. Mindfullness, keep focus on right now and how happy I am to be part of all of this, which I am!

Doll Quilt Swap 8

Many of the dolls from the Doll Quilt Swap 8 on Flickr are starting to be posted. They are all so different and so wonderful. I feel privilege to be some part of this swap. I feel I have learned so much in the last few months just looking at everyones postings and reading their blogs. I have such a profound appreciation for the imagination and craft that goes into making even a tiny quilt. Here are just a few:

Fig and Me

The dolls from Fig and Me are my favorites, maybe it's the freckles! The doll with the hat is another doll from Fig and Me but unfortunately isn't mine.

Waldorf Dolls

One of my favorite category of dolls are Waldorf Dolls. They are simple dolls made for children to play with but they have adapted with the times and many now have dreadlocks and colored hair. They all have a certain similarity yet they are also different. I have two from "Fig and Me" on Etsy but many people make them. The one with the hat unfortunately isn't mine :(

My "private" doll swap

Picture above also by silly boo dilly

Pictures on the left from work of silly boo dilly - they are fantastic!


As I stare at the incredibe, endless number of doll quilts in the Doll Quilt Swap 8 on Flickr, it is very clear that it is not appropriate to put myself in the same league with the quality and creativity of this artistically profound group of quilters. One brave soul among them as offered to act as my mentor and help me along although my status among them seems vague,clear in a below theirs. She may not have known what she's in for! I have spent weeks thinking of ideas, blocks, colors, etc., and have finally decided on doing two because one didn't seem to capture what I wanted to portray, so the fabrics were finally decided on after taking a few fabrics from Purl and a few from Hawthorne Fabrics and a few from a rather old stash. I will post pictures of bits of them, some hints later today along with some of the collections from my fabulous new bookcase.

I like to think of this kind soul as my guardian angel who will guide me slowly through projects until I feel among the "privileged", those whose quilts do not seem of man or woman made. Some of them are listed as some of my favorite doll quilts. Do have a look and marvel in their brilliance. There are many more of you who fall into this category so consider these few listed merely just a subgroup. The rest of you, you know who you are, the lucky elite of the quilting world. We do gaggle at your work, hoping someday... someday we may consider ourselves one among you.

My "new" work room

Several months ago I ordered a bookcase from Dave at Back Mountain Furniture on Etsy. He made me a beautiful, solid oak bookcase with five shelves. When we put it in the work room it fit perfectly where I had wanted to put it. As it turned out, the fabric fit better on four shelves rather than five I ordered I stacked most of my fabric by designer collection or color and the bookcase is almost already full. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the bookcase and the collections of fabrics that are neatly lined up on the shelves. Stacked on the top are quilts I've purchased from other quilters (mostly on Etsy). I love to just stare at the neatly, stacked rows of fabric. I don't want to use any, it looks so perfect as it is. I'll just have a reason to buy more (like I need a reason).

These would be mine in my other life. WOW!! There are so many things I'd like to do. Maybe I could learn to live without sleep, nah. At least I can admire the creativity of others!
Uploaded from Craft and Creativity's Photostream

I realize that I haven't posted in a while. The week so far has just been awful. Everything that could go wrong (not the major stuff like the roof caving in but all the small stuff like the toilet overflowing stuff) did and any faith that I had in humanity was just about gone. It seems (ed) as if you just can't count on people anymore to be reliable, honest, trustworthy, etc. The worst part was that Winston and I got locked out of our house yesterday after our walk in the freeing, sleet we were having in Rochester. Our neighbor had our old key, there was no one at the fire house (what's with that?) and finally after almost one and a half hours and no other options that I could think of, wet and tired, I called a locksmith who in another half hour drove into the driveway and with a few little tools opened the lock. He was no James Bond, but we heard that wonderful "click" as it unlocked. Winston and were both soaked and freezing so he proceeded to lie down on a heat vent and I changed into some warm gym pants and a sweatshirt and went under the covers. Then afer complaining A LOT, I got an incredibly lovely note from someone in the Doll Quilt Swap who doesn't even know me but has been emailed me before with words of encouragement. The kindness of a complete stranger was so amazing to me and so incredibly nice to get I couldn't believe how different these few sentences made me feel. I've found the nicest people through Etsy and the virtual groups. There must be something unusual about creative people who are as in tune with the emotions of others as they are with the colors, textures, whatever, of their crafts. Thank you all so much for kind words and understanding. I am so grateful to have found this communitiy of people who clearly see the world in a different way and share their goodness and exuberance with others. So... tomorrow a good friend whom I haven't seen in over a year (who has been quilting for almost 30 years)and has had her share of BIG heartaches, is coming over for the day to chat, have lunch, share quilting tips and meet Winston. I have nothing planned for the weekend and so I plan to practice my fussy cut blocks and get started and hopefully finished on my doll quilt. The world seems like a good place to be again, at least for today and all week long I've had a chance to see the incredible quilts that members have submitted to the doll quilt swap. They are all magnificent to me and so far from my abilities but there were a couple that left me speechless - see what I mean.

Meanings of Quilts

For most of us it seems that quilts have a very important meaning to us. We make them for people we love, especially. It's as if each time we give away a quilt we are giving someone a piece of use. Below are very different qults. The first quilt someone made for me and introduced me to quilting, the first quilt that I made I gave to my niece when my grandniece was born and I just have a picture of it. I have the second quilt that I made and the third quilt needs to be bound and is going to be put away for my first grandchild. The quilts in my home have different meanings to me and I become attached to the quilts and the the people who made them, even if I don't know them and even if I paid for them. I try to connect with them in some way and often do and they seem to do the same. They often email and want to know how I like the quilt. It's interesting to me now how quilts have become a way that we quilters try to care for complete strangers in all the new humanitarian donations we give with our quilts, as if we want to comfort those in the world who need comforting. I'm sure that the people who get them are comforted and again we form a connection to someone we don't know; we don't even know where they live, how old they are, we just want to help in any way we can and a quilt seems to be a wonderful way to do it.

My work room

I thought I would try to add some pictures of my work room since I posted about it and spent so long setting it up. I'm always interested in people's work spaces. It gives you some ideas for your own and allows you to learn about the way other people work. Some I'm in awe of! I haven't had much luck putting pictures where I want them to be so we'll see if this works?

My "baby" is 21 now!

I won't say it like everyone who is a parent does but.... my beautiful baby who was born with pink cheeks and delicious toes is 21 years old now. It's just another birthday but somehow there are those special years when you expect to look in the mirror and see some visual change and when it's not there you're perplexed but it's there somewhere inside of you, signaling something new is going to happen now. How exciting to be 21. The world hopefully even in these hard times and you're, feels like it's yours, as it should be so take off again as you have so many times in the past for paths unknown but to be discovered. Enjoy