Quilt Therapy

If you are not already or member or have not joined in my May Mystery Quilt Dash, I invite you to join us!  Membership is free and you not only get to see some great online quilt shops, you also earn a part of a quilt pattern with each shop you “find” the Mystery Quilt Dash image in!  On top of that, if you complete the Mystery Quilt Dash, you are in the running for winning a set of fat quarters given away at the end of each Mystery Quilt Dash game!

Please join us!

Our Song:  “Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House”

Yes, she’s my lady luck
Hey, I’m her wild card man
Together we’re buildin’ up a real hot hand
We live out in the country
Hey, she’s my little queen of the South
Yea, we’re two of a kind
Workin’ on a full house

She wakes me every mornin’
With a smile and a kiss
Her strong country lovin’ is hard to resist
She’s my easy lovin’ woman
I’m her hard-workin’ man, no doubt
Yea, we’re two of a kind
Workin’ on a full house

Yea, a pickup truck is her limousine
And her favorite dress is her faded blue jeans
She loves me tender when the goin’ gets tough
Somtimes we fight just so we can make up

Lord I need that little woman
Like the crops need the rain
She’s my honeycomb and I’m her sugar cane
We really fit together
If you know what I’m talkin’ about
Yea, we’re two of a kind
Workin’ on a full house

This time I found a keeper, I made up my mind
Lord the perfect combination is her heart and mine
The sky’s the limit, no hill is too steep
We’re playin’ for fun, but we’re playin’ for keeps

So draw the curtain, honey
Turn the lights down low
We’ll find some country music on the radio
I’m yours and you’re mine
Hey, that’s what it’s all about
Yea, we’re two of a kind
Workin’ on a full house

Lordy, mama, we’ll be two of a kind
Workin’ on a full house

Although our Mother’s Day celebration was delayed by a day because my MIL’s auto broke down, the rewards were worth it!  Look at these special MOM gifts!

First, I received a gift that Grace had painted in her church Sacred Arts class, a flower wind chime: 

Then, the two youngest kids made me paper weights out of rocks in school:

Front

Back

Front

Back

Then, Blayre made me a very special pink cow Mother’s Day letter:

Folded Paper “Envelope”

Her precious message to me.

Finally, my favorite candy bar is a Snickers.  I purchased one for each our our four children to gift to me and challenged each of them to write me a poem that had to have rhyming words in it – especially a word that rhymed with Snickers.  This is what each of them came up with (from youngest to oldest):

I truly enjoyed this Mother’s Day challenge and the kids’ creativity and humor.  Although the kids will grow up, these poems will last my heart a lifetime.  I’m a lucky mom!

p.s.  A few months ago, two of the girls came down with head-colds.  When they did, they couldn’t pronounce their “M” letters – hence, I became known as BOB instead of MOM.

My Mother’s Day was cut a bit short as my poor MIL’s car broke down about an hour from home, just before the kids were to start their Sunday Family Movie Night.  My husband had to go rescue her, wait with her for the tow truck, and then bring her back home sans her vehicle.  He told her it was their quality Mother’s Day time <grin>.  She was none-to-happy that her Mother’s Day had to be spend in that way, that’s for sure!  So, we will just extend our holiday and have her down for dinner tonight – and have some fun with our Mother’s Day celebration!

In the meantime, I was looking back at some of my photos and thought I’d show some of the “Mom Moments” as our four children have joined our family and grown.  I never expected to be a mom, though I cannot thank God enough that He chose me to bring four beautiful, smart, loving, respectful and entertaining babes into the world. 

Motherhood Is…

New Babies to Share with Great-Grandmother and Cousin

Silly Holiday Photo Fun

Family Educational and Entertaining Vacations

Special Birthday Parties with Extended Family

Playing in the Rain

Special Family Pets

Happy Father’s Day Dad

Precious Worship Memories

School Fun

Scouting Achievements

Sneaking out With the Girls to Have a DQ Treat While the Dad and Son/Brother are Away

Confirmation Love with Tio / Godfather / Sponsor
(and sweet memories of their Tia / Godfather / Sponsor / Angel)

Our First Prom

Motherhood is … Being The Mom

As most of you know, I had a mother who passed away when I was 12 and many additional mother figures in my life.  Some of those mothers were good, some not so good (to me) – but, it doesn’t change the fact that they influenced some part of me along the way.  I thought it’d be fun to take a look at the names of traditional quilt blocks and design a virtual quilt in tribute to those who have had a mothering influence in my life.  Here’s what I came up with:

Patricia – My Mother
Quilt Block:  Mother’s Dream

Grandma from Tramma – My Maternal Grandmother
Quilt Block:  Heart Dollar

Grandma Spencer – My Paternal Grandmother
Quilt Block:  Grandmother’s Fan (she would have used it for a fly swatter, too!  hehe)

Gloria – Foster Mother #1
Quilt Block:  Drunkard’s Path

Kay – Foster Mother #2
Quilt Block:  Spider Web

Medha – Foster Mother #3
Quilt Block:  Blue Butterfly

Lynn – Foster Mother #4 and Aunt
Stained Glass Yellow Rose

Josie – Unofficial Foster Mother #5
Quilt Block:  Drunkard’s Path Variation

Lu – My Mother-in-Law
Quilt Block:  Texas Flower

The Finished Mother’s Day Quilt

Happy Mother’s Day to all Mom’s everywhere – and especially to the ones listed above who have helped me become the Mom I am today!

I have a number of quilt friends on Facebook who enter their quilts in various local, national and even international contests.  It means something to them to be able to say they are an award-winning quilter.  It is a goal for some quilters, giving them purpose in their lives. 

I understand their competitive nature – usually it is just competing with themselves to see if they can do better and better (and not competiting against others).  Really, I do.  I applaud their efforts and enjoy the beauty and work that is put into their creations.  It’s just not me.

I could care less if my quilt is ribbon-worthy.  I have no desire to put my quilt in a juried show.  Nope, my goal is to create a quilt that one wants to snuggle up with on a cold night, a child wants to wrap around them when they are feeling under the weather, a teenager wants something that a special person made for them to pack off to college with.  I want to make quilted love.

I have a brother who I made a quilt for 25+ years ago.  When I went to see him a couple of years ago, he showed me the tattered, ripped and falling apart quilt.  I had to smile.  I knew that the quilt had been used an loved.  My purpose in life cemented once again in front of my eyes.  He asked for a new quilt, and I made it for him.  I know that the new quilt resides on his bed, being used every single day by his dogs and every night by he and his wife. 

THAT is why I quilt.  THAT is why I spend my discretionary time and money on my passion.  THAT is what makes my quilted heart beat. 

THAT is quilted love!!!

I have been told by a number of people (quilters and quilt professionals) that I have a great eye for color and fabric choices for quilts.  I am a bit modest and do not take it to heart, but it is one of the funnest things about planning a quilt I am designing.

I have had some good folks around me to help along the way.  First, my aunt who finished raising me, took an interior design adult ed class when I was in high school.  She painted at the time and the course not only helped her in her decorating decisions for their homes but also in her choice of painting colors.  My mother-in-law was also a 25-year veteran as a custom decorator (draperies) for JCPenney’s.  She has helped me with some great inspiration and advice on colors as it pertains to what makes a pleasing presentation in a room or house.  I also have a degree in cosmetology, where hair color and pigments where in-depth color analysis was so very important in choosing colors for folks’ hair.

Of course, the schools of thought from professional quilt designers are sometimes quite different to my education and experience – but, there is that creativity that peaks out with each person who designs a quilt. 

In most quilts I have seen, the fabric can “make” a quilt design more than the design itself.  There are exceptions to this rule, especially when there are only a couple of fabric colors used in a quilt.  There is also the option of tone-on-tone quilting, which I find lovely (especially a white and beige combination, but I am reserving that design for a very special quilt to make for my family to eventually have a final, tangible memory of me).  There are just too many wonderful choices of fabric for quilts – and if you are making a scrappy quilt, the more color the better!

I make a lot of quilts out of one full colorway from a fabric designer.  This is a bit more challenging, as not all designers add complimentary and/or light vs. dark fabrics in their colorways. 

And of course, there are always the quilts that are made with specific colors that people make – for sport’s teams, school colors, etc.  Again, these are special quilts and most folks who make them have a specific color goal in mind and many are very lovely.

For a quilter who thinks they do not have the experience or an eye for color, please keep these suggestions in mind if you need assistance to choose your fabrics for a quilt:

• Choose a focus fabric for your quilt and add the rest of the fabric colors that compliment that focus fabric.  I usually like to get a focus fabric that has a big print in it so it stands out from all of the others.
• Do NOT use brown in a quilt unless it is the main fabric of the quilt or it is in small amounts.  Brown can “steal” the colors from the rest of your quilt, where all of the rest of the quilt will take on a brown hue.  In the art world, brown is the presence of all colors (i.e when you mix all colors together, you get brown and not black as most of us were taught in school) and it draws the eye away from the rest of your fabric colors.
• All fabrics have a green or a red basis.  Be sure you look at your fabric choices in “natural” light – not flourescent lighting (which casts a green hue).  I have been known to pick up the bolts that I’m interested in and take them outside of the store just so I could see their hues in a natural light.
• If you do not want to use a focus fabric, choose three major colors for your quilt.  Again, I usually pick out these fabrics with big patterns and great colors in them.  Then, can accent each fabric with compatibles.
• Buy 1/4 to 1/2 yard of extra fabric when you buy your fabrics.  You should have leftover fabrics that you can use as the backing on the quilt, but since the fabric manufacturers cannot guarantee that you will get exactly the same fabrics because of different dye lots - you should have enough extra fabric just in case the pattern is incorrect or you make a mistake.  SO much easier to re-do a block than rip it all out and sew it back together again.  Also, once the quilt is done and you still have extra fabric, you can make accent pillows or pillow cases/shams out of the unused fabrics!
• Try to choose fabrics with varying degrees of the size of the patterns on the fabrics.  If I use a focus fabric with a large design, my secondary fabrics have a smaller pattern or just blender fabrics.
• If you are making a quilt for a man, be sure you do not use too many florals unless the recipient is comfortable with florals.  Many quilt fabric manufacturers are (finally) offering fabrics that are specifically for men’s quilts.
• Do NOT buy all of your fabrics without some “plain” blenders.
• Watch for light, medium and dark fabrics to give your quilt depth and contrast. 
• For baby quilts, research indicates they can see red, black and white first.  Even though there are adorable baby quilts that are made, I prefer keep the baby and their abilities in mind.
• A quilt that is too busy with fabrics is a no-no.  You truly need to add complimentary fabrics to your quilts, to break the space of the blocks and show off the block designs easier.  When you use busy fabrics throughout your quilt, it is very difficult to see the design of the quilt because your eyes cannot distinguish between the fabrics if they are all too busy and close together.
• Take the time to look up what colors mean.  For instance, the traditional Log Cabin block is supposed to have a red center; historically, it was an invitation to people entering the home with red symbolizing the hearth of the home.

Choosing fabrics is one of the most enjoyable parts of planning a quilt – and your choices can make or break a lovely quilt design.  A good example I use is to pick up paint chip cards (free) at the local hardware stores.  These come in very handy because they show you what fabrics will go together and the various hues of each color.  I poke a hole in the corner of my paint chip collection and put all of the cards on a ring so they are organized by shades and easy to transport to a quilt shop.  If you use Electic Quilt for your designs, you can also scan in the paint chips individually as images and import them into your software, to plug right into your quilt design to make sure it is appealing to the eyes before buying the fabrics you want.

Do not be intimidated by fabrics.  One of the easiest things you can do is to purchase fat quarters to try out various fabrics and their patterns before you purchase a large amount of fabric for a quilt.  ENJOY picking out the fabrics – it will make your piecing process much for fun!

There is no “set” way to write a quilt pattern.  There are many variations of what quilt professionals think are wonderful patterns that they have put together.  I would guess that in the early days of quilt pattern writing, the professionals emulated the clothing patterns that you purchased in a store, fabric shop or catalog.  As time has gone on, and people began writing more and more quilt patterns and received more and more feedback on what consumers wanted or needed to see in a quilt pattern, they began altering their personal courses to write their patterns so other quilters could put their quilt designs together easier.

There are a few books and resoruces available online to give you direction on what works and what doesn’t, but until you write your first pattern and have folks test it out – you really do not know how well it is written (and in this instance, a well-written pattern means all of the instructions are clear and concise and easily followed by a quilter).  Unfortunately, you are also writing your pattern TO your test audience – who may or may not be new quilters. 

This blog post comes from reading Facebook one day and seeing a very frustrated professional quilter purchase an online pattern for a baby quilt and the pattern had 15 pages to it.  FIFTEEN pages for a BABY QUILT!  What??? 

As a side note here, I had to take some training for the Girl Scouts a few years ago to become a facilitator (aka trainer) of Girl Scout leaders.  I have to say, the section on learning styles that we covered was amazingly helpful.  I was taught the different learning styles we possess and I have used that information over and over again in my quilt pattern writing.

My rule of thumb is to ALWAYS write to my lowest common customer denominator, that being a beginning quilter.  I also try to leave as many “words” off of my patterns as possible, because *most* right-brained people are very visual in their learning style.  Some words are necessary, especially the amount of fabric you need and the cuts of the fabric.  But, when it comes to putting a quilt pattern together – I just use a program to draw the step-by-step instructions on the paper.  If a beginning quilter can follow from 1 – 2 -  3, then they can put together one of my patterns.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of professionals put the entire pattern on a huge single page.  While this may save paper, it’s also very cumbersome to me to try to find a space in my small sewing room to have the pattern handy while I am putting something together.  If too close, it gets in the way of my work.  If too far away, I either cannot see it from sitting at my machine or I have to get up and down all of the time to refer back to it.  I’m not a big fan of these types of patterns – with the exception of applique patterns that have large pieces for templates.

I doubt there will ever be a universally accepted way of writing a pattern, like there is for an essay or even a resume.  Too many creative quilt folks are free spirits and want to do their thing so they stand out in a crowd.  I, for one, am not worried about my pattern standing out – I want a quilter to be able to easily quilt one of my patterns so that their creation stands out in a crowd.  THAT is the ultimate goal of being a successful pattern writer!

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Our oldest daughter has finally finished up their school’s One Act Play for the year.  They made it to Regional Competition but did not advance to state.  DD#1 was still very happy they made it as far as they did and we were treated to a community performance of their play, “Meet Me in St. Louis” this evening.  Very proud of our girl, very proud of the cast, crew and director.  Sure brings back a lot of great memories from my own high school days.