My Newest Little Project

I had my baby girl!

Finley Nichole Paddock was born February 26, 2013 at 1:55pm, weighing 9 lbs., 6 oz. and measuring 19.5″ long. She came out yelling and bright red, with a full head of dark brown hair.

She looks startlingly like her brother, which surprised everyone:  Ronan’s features are very much a mix of different family members, so that when people ask me who he looks like, I always say he just looks like Ronan. Now Finley also looks like Ronan, to the point that when they brought her to me, I thought, “Didn’t I already have this baby?” Her face is a little rounder, her forehead a little less prominent, and I think her eyes will be brown. But I also think they will look strongly alike as brother and sister, which can only be a good thing.

She’s a snuggly little girl who loves to be held, and knowing that she’s my last baby, I’m trying to cherish every moment of cuddling her. It’s a good thing I’ve always been told that you can’t spoil a newborn, because otherwise I’m spoiling the daylights out of this child.

I’m still getting used to the word “daughter.” Before we had children, if I ever pictured myself as a mother, I saw myself with little girls. After all, I have three younger sisters; my brother wasn’t born until I was 14. Having spent the last two years and three months as the mother of a boy, however, has changed that perspective. I think I’m doing a good job so far with Ronan; I hope I can give them both what they need from me.

We’re also trying to make this transition as easy as possible for Ronan. He never really grasped the concept of a baby coming despite all our efforts to discuss the topic with him over the last several months, so he has been a little spun by this major life change. My mom stayed with me in the hospital so Dan could be at home with Ronan to normalize things as much as possible those first few days. Nevertheless, he’s been somewhat clingy and oppositional since we got home from the hospital, but I make sure I do storytime and bedtime with him every night, just the two of us, and he’s gradually coming around. He likes Finley a lot, so at least he’s not holding a grudge against her.

So while I’m still in the early, bleary-eyed, weepy phase of new-baby-having, I wanted to introduce my new little treasure here. I’m still getting to know her, and still getting to know myself with her in my life. But she represents a very welcome new chapter, a new adventure, a blessing, and a promise.

Welcome to the world, baby girl.

Cheesecake!

This post is not even remotely about quilts. But it’s my blog, and hey, I’m guessing that just as when I’ve posted about cats or babies, I think there’s a decent amount of overlapping interest.

Every year since 2000, at his request, I have made Dan a different flavor of cheesecake for his birthday. Although I had baked cheesecakes before, this annual project has given me a great deal of experience. Some years’ cheesecakes have been better than others, but I haven’t had any complete disasters; even the amazing imploding Brownie Bottom cheesecake still tasted good, as Rhonda can attest.

So when Alyssa asked for my cheesecake recipe, she gave me the motivation I needed to collate information I had scrawled across multiple pieces of ingredient-splashed paper, combining crossouts on recipe printouts with handwritten notes and some little tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years and putting it all into one document. This doesn’t represent every cheesecake variation I’ve made; some, like the aforementioned Brownie Bottom deviate from the pattern; some, like the Pistachio and the Key Lime cheesecakes require different base recipes altogether; and the White Russian cheesecake (where’s the money, Lebowski?) was so complicated that I need to lie down just thinking about it. But you can pretty much make your own Cheesecake Factory display case at home with just this one recipe and its variations, and look pretty impressive doing it. Enjoy!

Master Recipe for Cheesecake

4-  8 oz. packages of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker (or other cookie) crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar

Adjust one oven rack to middle position, with another below it. Preheat to 325 degrees, with a pan of water on the lower rack.

1.  Bring all ingredients to room temperature. This makes for fewer lumps in the batter.
2.  Crust:  mix crumbs and sugar in a large bowl; add melted butter and mix to combine. Dump mixture into a 8″ springform pan and press with fingers across the bottom and 1/3-1/2 of the way up the sides. Take care not to let crust get too thick where it turns the corner to go up the sides. The crust does not need to be prebaked.
3. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat at medium speed until fully combined, scraping down sides with a rubber spatula throughout. Add eggs, one at a time, continuing to scrape sides regularly, then vanilla, then sour cream.
4.  Pour batter into springform pan over crumb crust and place on the middle rack of the oven. The oven should be very humid when opened and there should still be plenty of water in the pan on the lower rack. Bake until cake perimeter is set but center still jiggles, usually about 45-50 min. Turn off oven and leave oven door slightly open by a few inches, leaving the cheesecake in the oven for another 30 min.
5.  Remove pan from oven and set on a wire rack to cool fully to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, 2-3 hours. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan to release cheesecake, then undo spring and remove side piece of the pan. Slice with a wet knife, rinsing between slices, and serve.

Variations:
Chocolate cheesecake:  Use chocolate cookies for crust. Melt 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips over low heat. When combining sugar with cream cheese, also add 1/3 cup baking cocoa. Add melted chocolate chips after adding sour cream.

Chocolate mint cheesecake:  Same as chocolate, but substitute 11/2 teaspoon peppermint extract for the 2 tsp vanilla.

Marble cheesecake:  Same as chocolate, except only melt 3/4 cups chocolate chips and do not add cocoa or chocolate until remaining batter is combined. Divide plain batter into two bowls, and add 1/4 cup cocoa and melted chocolate chips to one. Pour plain batter into springform pan, then add chocolate batter and swirl with a knife before baking.

Pumpkin cheesecake:  Use gingersnaps for crust. Reduce to 3 packages of cream cheese and add 1 29-ounce can of 100% pure pumpkin along with 2 tsps. ground ginger, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. each ground nutmeg and allspice to recipe, substituting brown sugar for granulated and adding 1 additional egg.

Peanut butter cheesecake:  Use vanilla wafers mixed with chopped peanuts for crust. Reduce to 3 packages of cream cheese and add 3/4 cup peanut butter and 2 cups melted peanut butter baking chips.

Peanut butter cup cheesecake: Use chocolate cookies for crust. Make peanut butter cheesecake, then when cool, top with 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips melted and combined with 1/4 cup heavy cream. Garnish with mini peanut butter cups.

Almond Joy:  Use chocolate cookies for crust, with or without chopped toasted almond pieces. Substitute 11/4 teaspoons almond extract for the 2 tsp vanilla, and add 1/2 cup cream of coconut and 2/3 cup finely shredded coconut to the batter. When cool, top with 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips melted and combined with 1/4 cup heavy cream. Garnish with chopped toasted almonds and shredded coconut.

Liqueur-flavored cheesecakes:  This recipe is wonderful for flavoring with 1/4 cup of any of the following (leave out the vanilla extract):  Bailey’s Irish Cream; Amaretto; Kahlua; Godiva chocolate liqueur; Grand Marnier (orange); Chambord (raspberry.) Any of these works with either the plain master recipe or with the chocolate version… (yum!)

Cats and Quilts, Again

Today, my parents were here, and I wanted to show my mom Spumoni Spring now that it’s all quilted and bound. I’ve been keeping it in the basement since I laundered it, so it wouldn’t get cat hair on it before the guild quilt show next month.

After my mom looked at the quilt, I folded it and placed it on top of the built-in cabinet in our living room. I planned to take it back downstairs within the hour.

And within an hour of their leaving, I found this:

This is how I interpret the look on his face:

Multitasking Mama

I’m hesitantly wading into these uncharted waters in my life, figuring out how the working mother of a not-quite-3-month-old still manages to occasionally quilt. To that end, I’ve been working on a quilt for Ronan when I can grab a few minutes during his nap or when he’s willing to sit in his bouncy seat in the studio. Ronan is a great sleeper at night, but lately he’s been going through a clingy phase during the day where he wants to be held even when napping. Initially this created a barrier to getting much else accomplished.

Thank heaven for the good folks at Baby Bjorn. The nation that brought us Ikea and Lisbeth Salander has also made it possible for me to quilt, albeit at arm’s length, while Ronan snoozes away. I think he finds the sewing machine motor soothing.

Of course, thanks to the cats, I sometimes have more than one complication in my studio. More news of the quilt soon, I hope. (Hint: it’s blue and taupe!)

Psst! Lady, Wanna Buy a Sewing Machine?

I had a request for this story after mentioning it in passing in my last post, so here goes.  Sorry for the length, but it is all true, and decidedly stranger than fiction.

I can’t title this, “my first sewing machine,” because that title belongs to my mom’s Bernina, which continues to be her one-and-only.  Despite its being nearly as old as I am, it still sews like an absolute dream.  She likes to tell the story that when I took a home ec elective in 8th grade, I raised my hand and told the teacher my classroom machine was broken.  When the teacher came over and checked, she said it was working fine.  I said, “but it’s making that horrible noise.”  She responded, “that’s what sewing machines sound like.”  I said, “not my mom’s.”  “What kind is it?”  “A Bernina.”  “Well, that explains it.”

My mom's Bernina 800, purchased in 1976 and still going strong

I can’t even call this story, “the first sewing machine I bought for myself,” because that distinction belonged to a 50’s- or 60’s-era store branded machine, mounted in a cabinet, that I bought for a dollar at the Monday night auctions in Annville, PA, where I went to college.  What a great place for college students to find furniture!  Many of the ugly couches on campus were purchased for under $20 at the auctions, back in the days before Craigslist and Freecycle.  I used that machine to make a duvet cover and some curtains for my boyfriend at the time, but the tension was so far out of whack that I had to run each seam between my fingers after completing it to distribute the gathers the stitching caused.  It’s possible that a trip to the sewing machine doctor would have cured what ailed it, but I lacked both transportation and funds.  Also, this particular machine was straight stitch only, and a zigzag is nice to have.  So that poor machine went to the curb rather than continuing to fight with me.

By the following summer, I was dating my now-husband, and I wanted to make costumes for us to wear to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.  I knew better than to try for another $1 special from the auctions, but I didn’t have the disposable income to spare on a new machine, even a cheap one.  Knowing what I know now, it’s undoubtedly for the best that I couldn’t afford a new cheap machine, as by the early nineties they were mostly plastic construction and not worth the money.  I know of far too many new sewers who make the mistake of buying an inexpensive machine from Target or Costco after being inspired to sew by watching Project Runway or DIY Network, only to find they spend more time fighting with their machines than actually sewing.  I know of nothing that discourages a new quilter more quickly than a “bargain” sewing machine.  What I now normally recommend to someone who wants to sew but either can’t afford, or doesn’t want to make the commitment to, a high-quality new machine is to hit Craigslist, eBay, the repair shops, and the yard sales and find a good, solid, metal machine, a Kenmore or a White or a Necchi or a Singer from the 1960’s.  Not only do these machines tend to be adorable, but they’re indestructible as tanks.

A vintage White sewing machine from my own collection. Atomic cute!

So:  back to my story.  I wanted a sewing machine for less than $100 that would actually form a reliable straight stitch and zigzag.  I looked through the local Pennysaver paper (remember those?), expecting that any sewing machines I might find would be from estate sales or attic cleanouts, and therefore might not be in working condition.  However, I found a listing from a sewing machine dealer who said he had second-hand, freshly serviced machines starting at $29.  I called, expecting to be given directions to a shop.  Instead, the man who answered said that he’d come to me.  I gave him directions to the campus and we set up an appointment.

Once again, my expectations were confounded.  I expected to meet a van or a panel truck.  Instead, a rangy older man pulled up in an avocado green, two-door, seventies sedan that was packed to the absolute gills with sewing machines.  There was literally only room for him to sit in the driver’s seat:  every other available space was occupied by sewing machines.  The seats were covered, the footwells were full, some machines in cases but most without, with cardboard boxes of footpedals, light bulbs, power cords, and who knows what else balanced precariously wherever they’d fit.  I tend not to find myself speechless as a rule, but this was definitely one of those rare occasions.  As he explained, he didn’t have a shop of his own; rather, he went around to sewing machine repair shops and bought up abandoned machines which he then resold.  I deeply regret not having had the inspiration or the opportunity to take a photo, but suffice to say the mental picture has held up well these 17 years.  Made an impression, you might say.

We got down to business:  I explained what I was looking for and what I was willing to pay.  He opened the trunk (apparently the location of his “zigzag machines under $100” department) and sold me a two-tone brown-over-tan Kenmore for $79.  It had the mounting brackets from having formerly been housed in a cabinet, but I always used it on a desk or tabletop.  He somehow managed to get the trunk closed again — even minus a machine, it still appeared impossibly overfull — and went on his mysterious way.

That sewing machine and I had some grand times.  Not only did I make Dan’s and my Ren Faire garb, but I made Halloween costumes, sorority letter sweatshirts, the previously mentioned friendship quilt, and even one of those poet blouses that were so popular in 1993.  I also learned quickly that having a sewing machine in one’s dorm room is an excellent opportunity for practicing saying “no” to the myriad people who suddenly think you’re going to be thrilled to do their mending for them.  That selfsame old workhorse Kenmore was the machine I made my wedding gown with, years later.

Our wedding day, May 24, 1997.

I finally had to sacrifice the Kenmore; its zigzag gear cracked in half and could not be repaired or replaced.  By that point, I had moved several times, graduated from dental school, and had rediscovered quilting.  The tiny throat space on my Kenmore was ill-suited to machine quilting, and I had found a 1920’s Featherweight at an antique mall for a surprisingly good price, so I didn’t need another straight-stitch-only machine.  When we moved to our current house, in the interests of decluttering, I got rid of it.  I can’t say I regret that decision; I don’t want to be the kind of person who lugs around a heavy, bulky, not particularly attractive, broken appliance out of pure sentiment.  (The third season of “Hoarders” starts on Labor Day!)  But I will always have fond memories of that machine and the experiences I had with it.

And I’d like to think that somewhere, in the wilds of central Pennsylvania, an old man is still driving around in his old green car packed perilously full, making matches between young women and old sewing machines.  Like some sort of enchanted peddler out of a fairy tale, he certainly had exactly what I’d wished for, to help me reach the next chapter of my story.

Patchwork as Fashion

Tom and Lorenzo have a great post up on their fashion blog about the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective going on at the Musee des Beaux Arts in Paris until the end of the month.  Suffice to say, I won’t be attending in person.  However, as I was reviewing the pictures to add a little fabulosity to my morning, I came across this dress from 1969:

Yves Saint Laurent gown from the 1969 collection

Doesn’t it look exactly like something from a current Kaffe Fassett/Rowan book?  Big prints, bright colors, simple piecing.  The idea of wearing a patchwork maxi skirt may be hopelessly dated, but the colors to me look very contemporary.  Those tropical brights are unavoidably “in” right now.

I haven’t seen too many current fashion designers using recognizably traditional patchwork elements in their clothes lately; Jay McCarroll did it beautifully on the first season of Project Runway, and of course now he designs quilt fabric.  Angela Keslar from PR season 3 kept doing those awful yo-yo embellishments (which she insisted on calling “rosettes”) and they eventually got her kicked off, but I think the idea had potential, albeit in a much different form.  Tie-dye and shibori have made a comeback on the runway thanks to Proenza Schouler and Rodarte, among others, but it’s not quite the same thing.

I’d like to make some “wearable art” myself; one of the reasons I love making quilted purses is that they actually go out into the world to be seen, while bed quilts by their nature usually stay home.  However, as someone with a body that certainly doesn’t need any bulk added to it, I have hesitated to make a jacket, having seen too many that make the wearer look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.  I’ve also seen a few that have embellishments or piecing details that, umm, shall we say, weren’t properly thought out for placement on the female form?  Perhaps the lady I saw wearing the Log Cabin jacket that put two coral-centered blocks right on her breasts really was living her sublimated Gypsy Rose Lee fantasy, but that’s not something you have to worry about with a purse.  Hopefully I’ll find the right project someday, but till then I won’t be piecing any clothing.

But imagine a world in which that patchwork maxi skirt would not only pass without comment but would be the height of fashion?  It would be a world very different from ours.

The girl who dances with the police horses:  is her skirt made of granny squares or yo-yos?  I can’t tell at this resolution.

How impressive that a top European designer like YSL would have produced a high-fashion runway look so closely influenced by American street culture of the time, and that forty years later, that same color palette is the height of fashion.  Everything old is indeed new again.  Peace!

Quilt Odyssey 2010, Part II: The Vendors

As I mentioned in the last post, Quilt Odyssey’s quilt exhibit and vendor area are separated by a large lobby area.  Considering that we had parked the car and entered the building on a hot, sunny, humid morning, as we walked from the quilt exhibit to the merchant mall, we were taken rather aback to see that, less than two hours later, this was going on:

Monsoon season!

Anyway, the merchant mall at Quilt Odyssey never disappoints.  The same vendors do tend to come back year after year, which suggests they must have a successful show.  I was conservative in my purchases this year, so my apologies to the vendors (although not to my budget.)  The only really big-gish ticket item with which I indulged myself was the new free motion foot from Janome.

Brubaker’s Sewing Center was there with their Janome machines and accessories, and they were doing a pretty brisk business while I was in the booth; I suppose Sunday afternoon is the time when you want to buy a machine so that a) you can take it right out to your car; and b) you can strike a good deal with the dealer, who doesn’t want to have to pack it back up to take home.  Although a show booth seems like a great place to see a lot of machines and get demos, it struck me as odd that someone would buy a complicated machine from a dealer located far from them.  I overheard an older couple closing the deal on a $6000 embroidery machine, and they mentioned they were heading home to Connecticut.  Either there are no Janome dealers in Connecticut, or that was a really good deal.  I’m very glad that I bought my machine from a dealer I could easily get to for my new user class and any troubleshooting I might need, but I’m glad for Brubaker’s that not everyone thinks like me!

Anyway, I am very happy with my Janome MC6500, which I’ve had for 6 years now; the only two quibbles I’ve had with it, almost since the beginning, were that it didn’t have a bobbin alarm and I didn’t like the free motion foot.  The bobbin alarm is a lost cause; it’s not like they’re going to develop an aftermarket add-on for that.  It just seems so short-sighted to not put one on a machine that’s been designed with an extra-long throat space for machine quilting!  Apparently the designers didn’t think it was necessary, since it has a clear acrylic drop-in bobbin, but when you’re quilting a big giant quilt, you can go hours without seeing the bobbin.  Oh well.

The included free motion foot is clear acrylic and kind of bean-shaped.  I’m sure there are plenty of quilters who like an acrylic free motion foot, but I cannot count myself among them.  The acrylic may be clear, but it catches the light and reflects, especially if there’s any lint or residue of chalk marking pencil on it, obscuring my view of the quilt top.  I prefer a metal foot, which can be significantly smaller and thinner without being too weak.  Also, I want a round foot, so that I can use the foot itself  as a guide for echo quilting; an oblong foot doesn’t stay a constant width from the stitching line.  I have tried feet from other companies and have found some reasonable substitutes, especially when custom-modified with my Dremel tool, but nothing was exactly what I wanted.

Hopefully, this new one will be.  It’s billed as a convertible foot, because it comes with a single (offset shank, hooray!) attachment base with three interchangeable feet:  open metal, closed metal, and big honking acrylic.  (Suffice to say I am not currently a fan of #3.)  So far I’ve only just goofed around with it; the real test will be actually quilting an entire quilt and seeing if the magic stays.  I’ll most likely primarily use the open metal foot, as this is the most like the Bernina foot I have coveted, but the closed metal foot will be nice for quilts with puffy batts (or badly pressed seams!) as it will be less likely to catch on things.  Also, this foot does not hop, but rather glides above the surface of the top.  This will take some getting used to, but may end up being a real benefit.  I certainly hope so, because the 3-foot pack was $72, which while it doesn’t compare to Bernina foot prices, I can assure you it’s an awful lot to pay for a Janome foot.  But if it solves my lingering discontent on the topic, it’ll have been worth every penny.

Other than that, I bought 7 taupe (enough already!) Red Rooster fat quarters from Traditions at the White Swan, a 1/2 yard of a cute owl print from Smile Spinners, and a spool of MasterPiece from Superior Threads.  MasterPiece is the only thread by Superior that I haven’t been entirely happy with, but the only spool I had bought (and just recently finished) was black.  My experience with DMC embroidery floss suggests that perhaps the black dyeing process renders cotton thread a little more temperamental than other colors, so based on the strength of the rest of their product lines, I thought I’d buy a nice neutral piecing color and give it a second chance to see if it changes my mind.  If not, I’ll continue to use all their quilting threads, but I’ll stick with Presencia and Aurifil for piecing.

The show was closing at 4:00, but we were done in the dealer hall in time to get out to the lobby for the prize drawing.  We had gotten tickets as part of our show admission for a must-be-present-to-win drawing for a $1000 cutting table.  Even with the rain and with being the end of the day on Sunday, there was quite a turnout in the lobby, and to the show staff’s credit, they held the drawing right on time.  (Yes, I’m looking at you, Quilters Unlimited show!)  Unfortunately, no one in our group won; fortunately, the woman whose ticket they pulled was indeed there to claim her prize, so there was no tortuously drawn-out process.  Then, with a quick stop at Pennsylvania Fabric Outlet on the way, we were back home to quilt some more!  I’m always happy when I can quilt right after a show, while my motivation’s still up.

Happy National Quilting Day! (belated)

March 20th was National Quilting Day, which I observed in two distinct and quilt-y ways.

First, I volunteered to help with a quilt documentation at the local historical society.  It was insanely gorgeous out, sunny and 72 degrees, which made me initially regret having signed up to spend the day inside.  However, once the quilts started arriving, all regrets were forgotten.  My one concession to the weather:  I rode my bicycle to and from the documentation.  That way, I could pretend my decision was all about civic responsibility and not wanting to take up a parking space in the tiny lot, but it was really a chance to play outside on the first day of Spring!

Documentation Day is exhausting.  It’s that “good kind of tired” that people talk about, but it’s a long, busy day.  I worked in the photography area, helping to display each quilt on a flannel-covered frame so that pictures could be taken.  Each quilt is photographed in full, and then closeups are taken of quilting designs, interesting fabrics, embellishments, etc.  While it is physically tiring to keep taking that frame up and down, what I like most about that job is that I get to see every single quilt that gets documented.  This does lead to the predictable type of teasing I tend to be subject to anytime I’m confronted by a wealth of textile beauty, when I keep saying, “This one’s my favorite!”  several times in succession.

One of my favorites from last year's documentation, pictured here at a guild meeting. Quilt top owned by Cindy Hodge.

There weren’t as many quilts this year as last, but there definitely were still some standouts.  There were a couple of impressive double wedding rings, and some lovely traditional applique.  One quilt had blocks that were all dark-on-white/cream, except for  two identical black-on-navy blocks that were so close in value they looked to be solid squares from a distance.  I’m not usually much one for crazy quilts, but there were several stellar examples, most notably a rich, lavish silk piece covered with elaborate embroidery including a swan, a spider, and a garden’s worth of flowers.  One very old quilt had square cutouts for the posts of a four-poster bed in the bottom corners; the sashing between the large blocks of beautiful florals was intricately pieced with two different solids, but one of the fabrics had faded so dramatically that there was now almost no distinguishing the two.

Several quilt tops were brought in, including a few absolutely reeking of mothballs, which made no sense, as they’re cotton.  From a fabric historian standpoint, these tops are important because the fabric is frequently very well preserved and we can easily see both sides.  From a UFO-blogger standpoint, it’s great to see that I’m far from being the only one with unfinished projects!  And, as with anyone else’s collection of UFOs, some of the tops told their own stories as to why they hadn’t been quilted.  There was a matched set of double-nine-patch tops where one had four borders and the other only had one:  did she run out of fabric, I wonder?  There was one with a pretty red border that ruffled so badly it could have been worn on “Dancing with the Stars.” And there was my favorite in this category — the maternity quilt.  I had to call it that after we despaired of getting it to lie flat on the photography frame.  It was painstakingly hand-pieced out of hexagons roughly the size of a quarter, but there was an absolute dome, probably 18″ across, of extra fabric in the center of the top when the edges were laid out flat, as if it needed a pregnant belly to support it.  The documentarians later pointed out to me that the center was pieced of larger hexagons than the outer areas, possibly even by a different quilter, creating an impossible discrepancy.  No wonder she never quilted it.

My takeaway lessons from the documentation are these:  1) Forget perfection.  These old quilts are stunningly beautiful, yet they’re far from perfect.  2) Try unexpected color combinations.  One of the most striking quilts I saw all day was rust and lavender, if you can imagine.  3) Keep it simple.  Several of the most beautiful quilts were nine-patches, four-patches, broken dishes, easy stuff.  You don’t need to set the world on fire with complex piecing to create a thing of enduring beauty.  4) Label your quilts with as much information as possible.  It was wonderful to see the (sadly, few) quilts that bore the quilter’s name.  5) Use something pretty on the back.  The quilt with yards and yards of the huge Centennial print of Lady Liberty with ears of corn and beehives all over the back was a sight to behold.  6) Giving quilts away to people we love is one of the few little glimmers of immortality we can reach for in this life.

After my long day of documentation, I lacked the physical or intellectual energy to enter the studio, much less accomplish anything there.  I was therefore more than happy to kick off my shoes and spend a few happy hours with the second phase of my National Quilting Day, watching episodes of The Quilt Show.  TQS had announced that on 3/20, all the online shows would be available to watch for free.  I have access to the first season and from episode 406 to the present, but I had let my membership lapse during seasons 2 & 3 and hadn’t gotten around to paying for access to them.  So during my free evening, I watched #203, Ribbon Winning Applique with Suzanne Marshall; #210, New Twist on Applique with Beth Ferrier; #310, Needlework at its Finest with Liuxin Newman; and #402, Quilting to Perfection with Sue Nickels.  It was hard to choose which ones to watch, as there were so many quilters I wanted to spend time with (Jane Sassaman!  Sue Patten!  Joanna Figueroa!  Elly Sienkiewicz!) but I suppose that’s just my motivation to bite the bullet and buy those past seasons.  It’s just as well I had structured plans and had to sleep, or else I might have tried to get way too much use out of those 24 hours.  The video stream was uncharacteristically jumpy, but I imagine the server was strained to the limit with tens of thousands of TQS members from all over the world doing the exact same thing I was; it’s usually clearer than cable.

Hopefully this coming week will see me putting some of this newfound inspiration and motivation to use in finishing Convergence Birds and getting Ruby Wedding basted, but I’m white gloving at the AQS show in Lancaster on Wednesday, and Diane arrives on Friday, so we’ll see.  This quilting-intensive lifestyle isn’t leaving me much time for quilting!

Deja Vu All Over Again

Friday into Saturday, we got 25″ of snow.

We shoveled out, and I got to work Monday and Tuesday, but I was scheduled off today.  Thank goodness:

My street, 8:03 am, Feb. 10, 2010

It looks like another snow day / sew day!

I actually didn’t accomplish as much over the weekend as I would have liked, but then again, unrealistic expectations have always been a problem for me.  I’m not a fast quilter.  I set my personal perfection threshold fairly high; I have a favorite seam ripper, and I use it.  This is why deadlines are so helpful to me:  they reduce the dithering.  What I did manage to accomplish:

1)  The final side border corners on “Ruby Wedding” have been pinned into place and I’ve started to applique them down.

"I'm helping!"

2)  I have decided that I’m going to quilt the panel sections of “Window on Whimsy” in a small clamshell pattern.

3)  All the additional pieces (not many, I was frighteningly accurate in my estimate when I cut pieces several years ago) necessary for the half-block border of “Taupe Winding Ways” have been cut, and 24 of the 64 half-blocks are complete.

I’m hoping to finish an additional 20 half-blocks that are currently on the bed of the sewing machine, and then get back to quilting “Window on Whimsy.”  The main obstacle I’ve had with that lately is emotionally needy cats!  With my husband away, the cats keep following me around.  I hate to lock them out of the studio, but I can’t machine quilt with the constant threat of 13-17 lbs of cat suddenly landing on the quilt.  It tends to create a very ugly, peculiar jag in the quilting line, and I don’t like using my seam ripper that much.

"Slander, vicious gossip and lies! We would never comport ourselves in so infamous a fashion."

Talking to coworkers and patients, I realize most people don’t like being “cooped up” in the house.  I agree that I don’t like having my freedom to leave my house taken away by the weather.  But because of quilting, I don’t mind as much.  Instead, the weather grants me freedom:  the freedom to focus on opportunity rather than frustration.  The freedom to create warmth on a cold day.  The freedom to explore beauty and color in the midst of winter’s bleakest moments.  When I spend all day in front of the TV or the computer, I feel bad, lazy, ashamed.  When I spend all day in the studio, I feel revitalized, accomplished, alive.  Spending a day quilting, even if I don’t accomplish much, simply makes me feel good.

May today be a good day.