Quilt Therapy

I design quilt patterns and then write the instructions and post them on my BOMquilts.com website for free.  It seems to me that I have been doing this for at least 10 years but would have to go through way too many files to find an exact date so will just leave 10 years as my best guess.  MOST of the time, I work with quilt shops, designers, etc. to bring you well-written pattern instructions that have been tested.  This works well for all involved, at least based on the fabric and thread sales that come from one (or more) of my quilt patterns.

Quite some time ago, I had a respected shop owner tell me that because I was offering free patterns, I was basically putting a lot of quilt designers out of business.  I certainly have no desire to put anyone out of business but it really chapped my khakis that she would say that to me.  While I understand her point, what I don’t understand is how in the world could little ole’ me put anyone out of business?  Each quilt designer has their own special niche, as I do.  They have their current customers as well as a lot of ways to increase their customer base – both virtually and in person.  Every designer wants to be seen and heard and make sales.  The bottom line for this unwarranted advice was that the dollar is king.

Whether I choose to design quilts and give free patterns to the masses is my decision.  I am not taking money out of a quilt designer’s pockets – I am merely sharing the wealth, as the shops I work with are making sales on the kits for the patterns I design.  I am not making money, but again, that is MY decision.

What brought me to this revelation was that I saw a friend who worked in a quilt shop take pattern books and/or current quilt magazines home and copy patterns from them – as did the owner and her coworkers.  She had quite a few binders full of patterns she wanted to make, and it only cost her the copier fees, binder costs and page protector costs.  As well as a few minutes or hours a week.  What she was doing was probably not illegal, but it is more in the grey area of copyright laws.

Then, another quilt friend offered to give me her patterns that she had purchased, once she’d made quilts from them.  Again, this probably violated copyright laws but it’s done ALL. THE. TIME. right under the unsuspecting designer’s nose.

And what about those of us who go to Quilt Market and get free magazines, patterns and/or perks from the vendors?  We have not PURCHASED anything, but they are giving it away for free.  Does that mean we get free reign on what we do with them after they are gifted to us?

Then there is a virtual quilt shop owner who, in the early days of her business start-up, made her husband spend days and days on policing the Internet to make sure none of her shop’s images were used elsewhere.  She had very distinct images, as well as a logo on each of her images – and her husband had to send not-nice letters to anyone who was using her unauthorized images.  The thing about this that I still don’t understand is that they were NOT her images, they came from the fabric manufacturers – she just gussied them up so they APPEARED to be her images.  And with the evolution of Pinterest, now many quilt shops, bloggers and designers want folks to pin their images to their Pinterest pages.  (btw:  I do not allow my images to be used elsewhere from this blog and I do not have a Pinterest account).

At least with me giving the patterns away for free, I know what I’m getting into.  The vendors I work with know how my website works.  Everyone is happy because sales are made with each design I make and offer to my viewing audience.

Think about a quilt designer who ONLY sells her patterns to magazines – and they print them so a quilter who gets those magazines can get basically a free pattern.  She may make $300 – $500 with just one design in a magazine.  She’s the smart designer, the savvy businesswoman.  She is not relying on individual sales but gets her name out in the professional and personal quilt world because of her presence in a magazine.  She technically is not giving her patterns away but do you realize how many individual patterns she would have to sell to make up for that lump sum magazine payment?

To be judged by those who do not know me personally is sad.  To be judged by my designer peers is sad.  But to not take advantage of this wealth of quilted knowledge that I possess?  That’s someone who is trying to clip my wings based on their own greed.  That will not do.  Not now, not ever – not for me!

I was working on whip-stitching the binding on my table toppers this past week, and emptied a spool of thread.  Mind you, there wasn’t much tread on the spool to begin with but I like to save my nearly-empty spools (that don’t have enough thread to use in my sewing machine) to use for my handwork to finish a quilt project.  I had just enough thread left on a spool to complete sewing the binding to the backing – and there wasn’t a stitch of thread (pun intended) left on the spool and my projects were complete.

I am sure those of you who sew and quilt know the feeling of an empty spool – or perhaps these types of revelations just hit me out of nowhere and I have to write them down before they fill my MS brain with stuff so I can keep my brain filled with important things – like the schedules of my children’s summer activities (which I forget daily).

Hence, the empty spool beauty.  While looking at an empty spool, I smile at how many stitches I have used with that spool.  How many creative outlets I’ve used with with that spool of thread.  How many people I have helped put a smile on their face with the quilted projects from that spool of thread.  And although I will eventually need to replace that spool of thread, I do so with glee.  I will get a new spool of thread and can once again piece quilts, quilted projects, hand-sewing projects and continue to share the love from my quilted heart.

An empty spool is a thing of beauty – old or new, there are so many metaphors that describe an empty spool of thread.  The best one I can use right now is JOY.

I pieced table toppers for my friend Becky in Utah in December 2010.  If you remember, I was diagnosed with MS the last week of December 2010 – and our ‘normal’ world changed to a ‘new normal’ at that time.  Nothing has ever ‘leveled out’ for me since then, as the MS symptoms have progressively gotten worse.  I am currently between MS therapies and will start a new one soon.

Anyway, the table toppers were promised to Becky for her spring tables where she sells her goat’s milk soap.  She has some wonderful displays at various venues for her lovely products.  I believe I had made some autumn table toppers the year (2009) before, for her fall display tables.

Once I was diagnosed, I had a couple of years to try to deal with not only having MS but also to figure out my ‘place’ in our family.  My husband and I had made a pretty good bargain when we had kids – he would handle all mornings and I would handle the evenings.  In the past year, he has had to take on more and more of my evening responsibilities because I was either in the bed and in pain or I was on medication that meant I couldn’t drive.  He is definitely burning his candle at both ends and I haven’t been able to stick to my end of the bargain.

While my foster mother wintered with us earlier this year, we were looking through my stash piles for blocks for her to practice quilting on and I ran across the three table toppers I had made for Becky.  I was terribly ashamed that I hadn’t been able to get them done before but made it my new mission, to get those things done as they aren’t just spring colors but summer colors, too – and although my MS was not under any kind of control, finishing these up was my new ASAP WIP.

So, I set my mind to getting them finished!  I started preparing my MS body by relaxing as much as possible after my nap.  If I could get my legs and feet to stop spazzing and burning, through various relaxation techniques – I was one step closer to being able to get them done.  After a week, I believed I had conquered the relaxation.  Next was my reaction to stress, which usually shows itself in all sorts of painful MS symptoms.  Again, relaxation techniques helped that symptom immensely.  Finally I had to work on the daily dizziness.  My doctor told me to get some motion sickness pills to see if that helped.  Of course, it didn’t help, but it did give me some other ideas on how to try to stop the dizziness such as not getting overheated, resting well in the right temps, etc.

FINALLY, I did it!  I went a week with very few breakthrough symptoms!  Now it was time to tackle Becky’s table toppers.

During my week of dealing with the new me, I found out a very dear and precious (local) friend was having a medical crisis of her own – and needed a whole lot of prayers, praise and thanksgiving to fight her medical battle.  Every time I saw or heard her name, I sent up yet another prayer.  But, I felt I needed to envelope her in prayer more than I was doing.  Hence, the two projects (table toppers for Becky and prayers for my friend), morphed into one project.  And that original Karate Kid movie was my driving force in handling both projects.

Wax on, Wax off, Wax on, Wax off.

Stitch in and pray, stitch out and pray, stitch in and pray, stitch out and pray.

If you haven’t guessed it by now, I’ll make it easy on you – I was whip-stitching the binding to the table toppers and with each stitch in that I made, I prayed for my friend.  Each time the needle from my hand went through the fabric, I prayed for my friend.

Stitch in and pray, stitch out and pray.

Here are the three table toppers that I’ve finished – definitely made with love and stitched with prayer:

The fabric was gifted to me by Linda at AbbiMays.com and it is fabric that was designed for spring release in 2011 by Sandy Gervais.

And now, I will just have to find another project to keep my hands busy and my prayers joined with many others for my dear friend!

As I sit here this day, I wonder what heaven is like.  I wonder what death is like.  I wonder how many others are using you as a guardian angel.  I even wonder how many others remember this anniversary from 1997.  And, I wonder if I’ll ever stop missing you.

On the anniversary of your death, I clearly remember what we were doing the day before you passed through to your heavenly home.  My husband and I had gone to San Marcos so he could work and so I could have my first visit with my OB/GYN as I was pregnant with child #2.  You had been in the waiting room when we had DD#1 and I wouldn’t have had it any other way – I always felt like we shared our first baby with you, especially since we talked on the phone weekly (sometimes more than once a week).  I wanted to share as much of this new pregnancy as I could with you as I knew you were not going to have kids…and just the little things regarding our first daughter brought you some of the best joy.

I called you from the campground where we were staying for the night and let you listen to the heartbeat of baby #2 – I had recorded it just for you, so you could be with us in the same way you were involved with our first child.  You laughed and said that heartbeat “sounded like a freight train”.

Little did I know that it would be the last conversation I would have with you – at least while we were both alive.

The next day was Father’s Day.  In 1976, our dad died before we could have another Father’s Day with him.  We made it back to our home in Corpus Christi and I got a frantic phone call from Trickie.  She said something had happened and your eyes rolled up in the back of your head and you were unresponsive.  She had called her mom, a nurse, before she had called me as well as 911 – but, I was the first one she called, in our family, because she knew how hurt I’d be if I didn’t hear something so awful from someone else.  A few hours later, I received a call from an aunt who had a police scanner and said she was so very sorry but you had never regained consciousness and were DOA.  I was crying and screaming and so very upset.  You were the best friend I ever had, outside of my husband.  To this day, I still don’t have a best friend that cared about me as much as you did.  Or that cared about having a sibling relationship in the manner with which you and I had.

I talk to you often, even if it’s just in prayer.  I make sure to visit with you when I have a question about our family and pray for your wisdom to help me see through the quagmire of life to find an answer to my dilemma.

I cannot say I wish we had never gotten so close because without your love and showing me how to love, I was able to find and fall in love with my husband.  We have four wonderful (most of the time, which you would definitely laugh at) kids and none of them know their Uncle Mike except through some old family photos and my stories to them.  But, those stories do not take the place of having you here.

I miss having you here.

I miss you.

Forever your Sister, Tammy

I have heard from many quilters that they have no idea how to go about picking out fabrics for a quilt project.  The advice I have given them is to find ONE fabric that you love and build your fabric selections based on that one fabric that they love.

This week, I need to make a baby quilt – so thought I’d put together some photos of potential fabrics for the quilt.  It’s like choosing an Academy Award!  The one fabric (purple with flowers) is the ONE fabric I want in this quilt.  Take a look at my collections that I chose to go with that fabric:

Fabric group #1

Fabric group #2

Fabric group #3

Fabric group #4

Based on these fabric combinations, which would YOU choose?

This fabric was sent to me by Linda at www.AbbiMays.com.

My final answer is to go with group #2!

I will photograph the final project once it’s done and will share the finished quilt top when it’s complete!

We return to our regularly schedule program with the final quilted Rail Fence table topper with fabrics chosen from a Sandy Gervais.collection.

The project is complete (above) and the lines have all been ironed out.  Here’s the finished quilted project!

The final things I need to do include cutting the backing and batting to even out the square:

Finished table topper:

The quilting on this project took about an hour.  I just have to bind it (fabrics already picked out for that) and then it is ready for Ms. Becky’s Spirit Goat tables where she sells her products!

I do have a long-arm in storage, but it cannot go in my sewing studio until the studio is complete!  My hubby has SO many projects to handle, first and foremost is making sure our kids are where they need to be and when…and fulfilling his roll in the local Cub Scout Pack – on top of his weekend lay minister work that keeps him on the road at least eight hours each weekend.  Driving kids to an fro is added to his daily schedule – and there’s just not enough time to get anything outside of a day at home so he can get in the quilt studio to work.

I am not a quilter.  Have never professed to be one.  I tried my freehand and that was a nightmare of epic proportions.  So, I use my quilting foot and try not to make circles because my circles become some strange and interesting patterns that never resemble a circle!

I traded with a gal I know in Utah (www.spiritgoat.com).  She wanted some square quilted table toppers in exchange for her sending a gift of her products to a friend.  She sent the gift but that was in 2010 and I had just been diagnosed with MS and our lives will never be the same!  Her quilted projects got pushed to the side for more important matters such as researching to understand my new diagnosis.  I feel REALLY BAD about making her wait for more than two years for her table toppers but I decided to try my hand at some simple quilting for her table toppers.  Part of this will be revealed today and tomorrow will give you the finished project.

This is a very simple Rail Fence table topper….edited to be the size she preferred:

Becky’s Rail Fence Table Topper just pressed.

Next it was time to draw the lines on the quilt, for me to follow while I quilted:

These are the pens that I really like – the lines you draw on your quilt disappear when you press the fabric.  If you look close enough, you can see the lines I drew:

Becky’s Table Topper with Lines to follow while quilting.

Once I drew the lines, it was time to make my quilt sandwich!

After drawing my lines, I pinned the heck out of the project – I would have basted it if it was bigger, so I just used pins to hold the three layers of fabric together.

Want a LIVE ACTION SHOT?  I begin quilting the table topper while using my quilting presser foot.

Becky’s Quilted Table Topper – time to press it to remove the lines!

After I quilted the project as I wanted, it was time to look at the lines I’d drawn, to make sure I hit all of them with precision.  WHAT?  I am not looking for precision!  I want to be an exceptionally good quilt quilter, no matter where the other websites and/or quit projects are “out there”.  I want to be an exception to all of the ‘quilt-related’ folks – an exception to the rule.  Perfection is not necessary to me, as there is only One who was perfect – hence I’ll settle for an exception!

Come back tomorrow to see the almost-finished project!

When my foster mother was wintering with us, she bought a new Brother sewing machine as well as the quilting presser foot.  I gave her a couple of 12″ blocks to practice with and she did a great job of learning how to quilt with a domestic machine as opposed to a long-arm.  As these two quilt squares you see below have been staring at me (probably mocking me), I have been trying to figure out what to do with them.

My foster mother just wanted me to bind them – but, that just didn’t ‘feel’ right to me.  Finally, I figured out what I wanted to do with them!  I cut them diagonally, corner-to-corner twice and will make four mug rugs out of each block!

Ah yes, my hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat!

Ooops, don’t know why that song keeps running through my mind when I set these triangles apart.

Once I have the binding on them, they will make a perfect mug rug gift set for anyone who likes using larger-than-a-coaster mug rug!

I am kinda liking this type of quilt fun, sharing of information from the world of quilting outside of what’s going on (or not going on) with my quilting.  Hope you’re enjoying it, too!  I have numbered these posts based on the number of the week’s post as well as the number of weeks in a year.  Not sure I’ll be able to keep up with this every Monday, but I’m going to try!

Without further ado (aka my yakking), let’s peek in on what the quilt manufacturers are up to in the “free pattern” category:

• Hoffman Fabrics free Quilt Patterns
• Free Spirit Free Quilt Patterns
• Andover Fabrics Free Quilt Patterns
• Art Gallery Free Patterns
• Clothworks Textiles Free Patterns
• Timeless Treasures Free Projects
• Benartex Free Project Pattern
• Blank Quilting Free Quilt Patterns
• Blue Hill Fabrics Free Patterns
• In the Beginning Fabrics Free Patterns
• Marcus Fabrics Free Projects
• Maywood Studio Free Quilts and Projects
• Quilting Treasures Free Quilted Project Sheets
• Red Rooster Fabrics Free Current Patterns
• RJR Fabrics Free Quilt Patterns

I do not receive any type of payment or fabric from the above-stated companies.  I am merely providing a service to my blog readers to share links they perhaps didn’t know about.  These are from the manufacturer’s web pages.  If you have a favorite quilt fabric manufacturer who I missed, please add it in the comments and I’ll take a look at it!

• What’s Happening in the Quilt World 1/52

Do you ever just want to jump off a cliff and feel the wind in your hair and then the water at your feet?  I remember many moons ago that we did just that.  I seem to recall is was on one of our Boundary Waters Adventures (in northern Minnesota) that we hijacked a canoe after a day of moving from one campsite to another, and went cliff diving.  I was scared, not so much of the jumping but that the water wasn’t deep enough…even though a couple of the guys who were with us had already made the big leap and came up just fine, never touching the bottom of the lake.  I made the decision that I was going to do it – and I did!  I did it!  I conquered my own fears and just let go.  SO. EXHILARATING!  I cannot tell you how many times I climbed up the cliff, only to feel that wind in my hair and the water hitting my feet.

So, let’s talk about jumping off our quilting cliff and finding something fun to do on a Friday – Funday Friday!

As if I need to repeat myself again, you should know that I am a traditional quilter.  I do not make showpieces, I make quilted love.  I haven’t a competitive bone in my body.  My quilts are meant to be used until they’re in tatters and I’m asked to make a new one to replace an earlier one that has been loved so much that the user asks me for another one.

I use Electric Quilt software to design my quilts.  But, my EQ7 (and earlier software versions) they have premade quilts for you to make.  Nothing special, just FUN!  Funday Friday!

Let’s go out on that cliff’s edge and look at jumping into making a contemporary log cabin quilt.  Want to?  Just so you know, the quilt I made for my wedding is a traditional log cabin quilt as it’s my very favorite to work with.  Although my children keep running off with my quilts, I managed to save our wedding quilt (this week, at least).  Let me tell you, if you make this contemporary Log Cabin block, the block placements in your quilt take on many different variations on the same block!  Here is the contemporary quilt block:

Let me show you another simple-to-sew contemporary log cabin block:

Amazing, right?  They are the EXACT. SAME. BLOCKS!

Now, here are some layout designs from the block patterns above – all of the quilts use the same block – just different fabrics!

Go ahead – DO IT!  Take a ride on the wild side and get back to quilting basics on Funday Fridays!  I can make one of these quilt tops in about two hours – what about YOU?!