Rocket Boosters

Who can say what strange things cause a burst of creativity!??  For me, it's been a long dry spell...waiting for something to happen, waiting for that muse of ...something...to break in and set me to work.

I keep inspiring notes on my board...

I have evidence of other people's creativity to spur me on...


Nothing like heroes of the Zombie Apocalypse to generate excitement and fervor (especially if the Xena-like warrior is your own daughter! Go Emily!!! lol)!!

But nothing much has worked until this week.

I took a mad risk.

I've known for a while that I can't function in chaos.  And my Sewing Room/Mary Kay office has been a testimony to a cluttered mind for some time.  Piles of this and that....paperwork and inventory and unfinished projects, and projects that need to be finished because of deadlines and LAST year's deadlines unmet...

No wonder I haven't been sewing!!

This past week, though, I did something I'd been threatening for a while.

I had a YARD SALE!!!

Oh. My. Word!!
Do you know you can clean out stuff? That you can down size? You can rid yourself of clothes unworn and household dust-catchers, and even....dare I say it...FABRIC!?! at a yard sale!?!  And I did!! To the tune of over a $1,000!

I set out on a mission to de-clutter and scale down.  Is it possible to have too much fabric!? For me, the answer is yes.  I couldn't get to the pieces I wanted.  I couldn't see the forest for the trees!! I couldn't pull out pieces to audition because there were already too many pieces out!!

So I got desperate and ruthless, and starting making decisions about what I would keep and what could go.   That fabulous Jan Patek block-of-the-month.  There are other applique projects that I want more, so it hit the sale table.  UFO's that I'd lost interest in, or had started in a class only to push it to the back of the closet.  Yards and yards of "It's so pretty I can't resist it!" fabric filled laundry baskets. Neutrals, prints, Moda, RJR, even my precious Thimbleberries....pared down to manageable amounts.

That Orca Bay Bonnie Hunter mystery that I was sure I wouldn't be finishing...suddenly, with some of the clutter removed, I could put pieces on the design wall...

Could it...?

Would it work....?

Oh. My. Word!!!
It's a quilt top!!  A sorta Bonnie Hunter meets Jo Morton little quilt top!! And I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl!! I'm a quilter again!!!  Who knew!!?!?

One of my favorite passages of scripture is from Hebrews 12:1.  The Amplified version says it this way:

"Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1 AMP)

Entangled is a good word.  And I have to laugh about stripping off the encumbrance.  All day at the yard sale I wore a quilt t-shirt that said, "Eleanor Burns made a stripper outta me!"

How it matters that we throw aside the things that are keeping us from becoming all God created us to be!! 

I keep visualizing the Space Shuttle...with the pieces falling off, boosters shooting the spacecraft into orbit....Beautiful!!  What unnecessary weight do you need to throw off!?

This is my year. My jubilee! Mary Kay said, "If you simplify, you will simply fly!"  Pounds (20 so far!), and clutter and yes, even beautiful things that cannot be appreciated for the sheer bulk of them.  It's time to be boosted to the stars!!  Time to be ALL that God desires me to be!

Blessings!!

Following

I have always enjoyed Bonnie Hunter's pics.  You know the ones...taken from her car as she travels along.  Sunrises, sunsets, trees, highways, byways... It's a fascinating look at her perspective in life, a snapshot of adventures we are all taking with her as we quilt!!

I was traveling home after spending Thursday, Friday and Saturday with my "posse" of Mountain Laurel Quilters at our fall retreat, and I had to pull out my camera and snap what was in front of my minivan!

Let me get a little closer so you can see...

Uh-huh.
Bonnie gets vistas; I get...
Well!  LOL

That would be the worst of my retreat this past weekend! :-D  I got some much needed quilt therapy, working on some projects that have been lanquishing far too long (kinda like my blog!!)!




I finally got the alternate blocks pieced for Sam's Darlin' Hearts! I was able to put them up on the design wall when I got home.  My wall is not quite big enough to hold all the blocks (and it's behind my sewing table, so I have to get an angle shot to capture the bottom. :-D)...but they are simply gorgeous.






I also pieced blocks for the Shiners View quilt that I found through Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict blog.  I love how the big prints play in this design!!

I "leader-ed and ender-ed" 1 1/2" squares for my Crabapples (one of Bonnie Hunter's
:-D), and just for funsies, also worked a little on a Tumbler quilt for which I've had a kit for at least a couple of years.  These 5+" blocks make for easy piecing!! And wonderful scrappy, dark fabrics -- my usual pallette, unlike the other blocks I worked on during the weekend!

It's the most time I've spent on quilting since Sam passed away.  It was much needed therapy!!  Being around other quilters is always good for the soul!

And following a donkey all the way home was a reminder....

I need to be sure I'm following the right people!!
I don't mean the rich or famous, or government leaders, or ambitious or even influential people, or even people exactly like me...

But people who are positive.  People I want to emulate because they are excellent quilters, excellent designers, excellent people.  People who have HEART!!

Paul writes, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV).  Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28 NIV). 

I pray I'll be someone who always follows the right Person -- so that if others find themselves behind me, they won't be jerking out their camera to capture a jackass in all her glory!! :-D

Blessings!

Faith

It's 4:30 am and I should be sleeping!
I want (!) to be sleeping! but allergies (runny nose) and a million things circling in my head have me awake, so it's better to just get on up and do something productive until I feel sleepy again.

Do you ever have those kind of nights?

One part of my brain is wondering if I got everything to Konda that she needed...
She's hosting the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt-Along at Moose on the Porch and I designed a block that goes on today.  It's called Friendly Winds.  It's over there, so that must have worked out OK!

Another part of my brain is wondering about the Cathedral Stars blocks I made.

I started this quilt back in March when Bonnie Hunter was gonna be at Pigeon Forge.  Jeff came home from Afghanistan (he's always disrupting my quilting plans! LOL), so I didn't get to go to Bonnie's class.  I'd mocked up the quilt in EQ in different colorways than Bonnie's:

It looks good on paper, but I'm not so sure about it on the design wall.

I'm up anyway, might as well try something else.

So I've made a block with yellow star points and one with blue -- closer to Bonnie's original:

I'm liking the blue the best.

Isn't it funny how things always look better on paper than they do in real life?

A budget.
A schedule.
A plan.

If there is anything I've learned this year it's that things don't always work out as we plan.  We'd planned Sam's senior year and college visits.  Things we  wanted to get accomplished before the winter set in.  I have no less than a dozen quilts I wanted to finish by year's end.  Not much of what we planned is gonna come about.  I wonder how this difficult year will end.

At our church over the last several weeks, we've been hearing a series of messages called "Champions" on Faith from Hebrews 11. (You can check them out here.)  Hebrews 11:1 tell us "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."  Faith is resting in all Christ is and all Christ has done.  Faith is having confidence in what God has said.  Faith cultivates a life that is in agreement with God.  Faith lives in light of future anticipation....

That the best is yet to come.
That the present reality is not an indication of the future and what it holds for we who believe!!

One of my favorite movies is The Shawshank Redemption.  Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, tell his friend, "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

At the end of the movie, Red, played by Morgan Freeman, says, "I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope."

Proverbs -- always full of practical wisdom! -- tells us "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD." (Proverbs 21:30)  There is so much to hope for, so much to believe!

I hope my quilt turns out as pretty as Bonnie's.
I hope I can get everything done today that needs to be done.
I hope I can go back to sleep!

Blessings,

Hearts Fly Free

I've been sorta paralyzed for the last several weeks, getting only a little bit done on projects with deadlines, but not really accomplishing as much as I'd like, nor getting to projects that are burning in my brain to be started!  And the truth is, I don't really function well in chaos....which is a shame, 'cause I don't really function well as a housekeeper, either! LOL

We had a bunch of friends over on Saturday night, though, and the impending cook-out/games night meant getting my house in order for company!  My sewing room looked like the villains from Raiders of the Lost Ark had come through, ransacking for ancient powerful artifacts!! Is that the Ark of the Covenant!!! The Holy Grail? Glowing stones for ancient gods or crystals left by aliens!?! 

NO! just gigantic piles of fabrics, scraps, and tools, thank you very much!

Since I can't seem to clean the rest of the house until the sewing room is done, I tied in and got-r-done!

Finally, then, I'm free from the weeks of  clutter and ever-mounting piles of stuff! in my sewing room (although I dare not open the closet door too fast for fear of an avalanche!!  That is a project for another day!), and I'm able to start something I've been wanting to do for a while.

I delved into my scraps today to make a leader/ender project.  Many of the pieces had already been cut into 1 1/2" strips, so I started whittling them down into squares for "Crabapples" from Bonnie Hunter's Adventures with Leaders and Enders book.

I'll feed my leaders and enders through as I work on a couple more quilts for others (I've got a t-shirt quilt and a couple of memorial quilts on the burner) and on Sam's Darling Hearts.  Last week I received a block from Teresa at Fabric Therapy, and it's another beautiful addition to the quilt:

That brings the total of blocks I've received up to 34!!!  I'm eager to start putting them together!!

I love the words Teresa embroidered on her block:  "Hearts Fly Free"

I've been reading in the gospel of John this month, and Jesus talks a lot about freedom!  "The truth will set you free," He says in chapter 8, verse 32.  A little further in the chapter He says this...

"I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."  (John 8:34-35)

There's no doubt in my mind that my son Sam is free!! What a blessing! What a testimony!  So Teresa's block is another beautiful expression of Sam's life and death.  I've been amazed at how people have understood his heart and made blocks that just "fit," you know?

Now if I could just get all my sewing stuff to fit....
I'm not sure even Indiana Jones could help me with that!!

Blessings,

Chicks, Blocks and Stacks

It's been a productive week for me!!  Since Jeff left on Wednesday, I've been burning the midnight oil -- partly to exhaust myself because, just as I've gotten accustomed to having a bed-fellow again, he's gone and I have to figure out how to keep myself warm!

:-) Sigh....

I tied into a several-day project of re-organizing my sewing room.

Oh.

My.

Word.

It was SUCH a mess!! So all the furniture went out, all the fabric went out, all the projects -- finished and unfinished! -- went out, and the cleaning and sorting began.

I didn't realize how much fabric I have....!! I got it all sorted by color, and stacked to the ceiling in the closet.  Before I'd kept lines or types separated, but this is much better.  I can see at a glance what I have.

Um....I think I can lay off the background fabrics for a while.  I think I don't need to buy any fabric until the next millennium!!

I organized my projects, too.  I bought hang-up shelves for my closet rod, and stacked boxed-up projects into them so I can pull them out easily.  Before they were stacked willy-nilly on the closet floor and I could never find something without pulling out a million things! UGH!  How can I complete Judy's UFO Challenge if I can't find the UFO!? So that's much better!



I kept my peg racks on the wall for blocks to hang on.  They're pretty!! :-)  and they are a good reminder that those projects need attention.

I had to drop everything on Sunday, though, with a phone call from the post office.  Did I wanna come up and get my baby chicks!?  I wasn't expecting them 'til Monday, but okay. Yeah. :-)  They are the cutest little things!  My friend and fellow quilter Tracy and her family piggy-backed the order with us, so they came Monday to pick up their baker's dozen.  Nothing bonds people like quilting and chickens! LOL 

With all this going on, I managed to actually sew!!! I'd curtailed my sewing time while Jeff was home, so it was heaven to sew nearly the whole day today.  I worked on Eventide (a Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. pattern), Thelma's sew-along at Cupcakes n' Daisies.  I've also been working on the mystery quilt I'm leading at my club (a tease, since I can't show it to you!), and I've got 25 blocks finished on the Farmer's Wife.  I'll be doing a dozen or so more blocks for the FW this week in preparation for our monthly class. 

And while doing all these, I've also been "leaders and enders"-ing on Cathedral Stars, the class I missed with Bonnie Hunter.  She's right...it's like getting a bonus quilt while you work on another one!!!  I have my little basket of "twosies" -- 2 - 2" squares, a light and a medium/dark -- stacked up and ready to feed into the machine between chain sewing other units.  Fun, fun, fun!!

And all in an orderly room that doesn't smother me anymore!

Paul wrote "For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is." (Colossians 2:5 NIV)

Thank the Lord that my faith in Christ is much firmer than my ability to keep my sewing room orderly!!  :-D 
Blessings!

Running!

My friend Patty has a saying that fits me this week....

I'm so far behind, I'm ahead!

I didn't write at all last week, didn't get to read all my favorite blogs, didn't get to exercise, seems like all I did was run, run, run!!  And I was so trying to "crank" out a few things.  This week I'll be teaching at the Jabez Quilt Seminar and I'm just now getting one of my sample quilt tops completed, still have instructions to prepare, packing to do (and laundry before I pack!), a trip to college to return my daughter (they require her back until I pay her ransom, i.e. tuition! :-D), and drum lessons, and basketball practice, and errands, the funeral of a friend. and...and...and...

So my little hiatus from blogging seems long to me although it has only been about ten days.  I managed during that time to get a few things finished.

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll!! YAY!!! :-D

I'm proud of myself for sticking out the mystery and pretty much keeping up with it from week to week (it kept me from adding RRCB to the way-too-long UFO list!!).  I didn't care for string blocks before starting this mystery, but never having done them before, I took the plunge! I enjoyed the process!!

I still don't particularly like the string "look"  (and if I'd seen JulieK's quilt top -- oh, my! Isn't that just gorgeous!?! -- I would have saved my string blocks for another project! LOL) -- but I like how this quilt turned out.  The teal/turquoise is a little more muted than Bonnie's poison greens, but still nice.  AND I used a TON of fabric!  As Lori at Humble Quilts says, "Woo-Hoo!!"

I managed to get both my quilt tops from Kim Bracket's Scrap-Basket Surprises finished, too.  Good thing, since I'm showing them at Jabez for my classes!

My favorite is "Christmas Ribbons."  Mine isn't Christmas fabrics, just scrappy.

The "Bali Sea Star" turned out OK.  You know -- and I know this is weird -- I don't love batiks.

There it is. I've said it. Out loud!!

The color saturation is cool.  And I can see how they are wonderful -- but I don't seem to be able to present them to best advantage.  This is a quilt I'll probably give away once it's quilted and bound.

When I get settled in at Jabez tonight (or tomorrow night, if I don't get my copying done for the Mountain Laurel Quilt Sampler that I'm teaching!), I hope that I can enjoy NOT running for the duration of the three day conference!

I thought I'd see what the Bible says about running.... :-)

Jeremiah, that prophet of doom and gloom (God love him!) said, "Run for your lives!!" three different times! :-D  in chapters 48 and 51.    There's nothing so dire going on in my world to require that admonition, thank the Lord! :-) O' course, Jeremiah's message was one of judgement.  Best not to be in rebellion against God as Israel was in at the time, huh?

Isaiah 40:31 offers this beautiful encouragement to runners..."But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." 

So does Proverbs 18:10:  "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe."

And if I need to re-order priorities in my life (and I always do!! :-) -- Psalm 119:32 offers this admonition:

"I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free."

Makes me think of Daniel Day Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans (LOVE that movie!).  The Native American brothers run constantly through the woods and paths of the wilderness that was North America -- but always with purpose and integrity and intensity.  It's a sight to behold.  Oh that I would run in the path of God's commands so beautifully!

Gotta run!!
Blessings,

Chaos!

Oh, what have I gotten myself into!?!!
I, whose fabric is divided into categories like 1800's, 1930's, Thimbleberries and Batiks, then stacked by color on shelves.

I, whose books and magazines are carefully shelved --  like my corn and mashed potatoes:  NOT MIXING!!!! -- applique' on one shelf, hand quilting tomes on another, history, piecing, etc in their own space, and back issues of magazines (in a magazine holder, thank you very much!), on yet their own shelf.

I.....I!!!  I  have been reduced to this:

Oh, the drama!
Oh, the mystery!!!
The mystery is NOT what Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt, Roll Roll Cotton Boll , will look like.
The mystery is how I -- control freak, "I can't do the laundry 'til it's sorted correctly," --  "The pillows must be turned this direction on the bed," -- perfectionist messy, must-know-where-I'm-going kinda gal -- got into this!!

The first two steps were OH! so easy!  Strips and half-square triangles....Sigh.

And then Bonnie's instructions were to dive into the void, and come up with handfuls of "stuff" and sew it together on phone book paper.
Oh. My. Word. 

I've never done this before.  I've always eschewed stringy stuff -- like rhubarb and greens and string quilts and shrimp (I know shrimp isn't exactly stringy, but a former neighbor grew fresh water shrimp and they have these long stringy tentacle-like thingys coming outta their snout....yeah. Cannot even think of putting one of those in my mouth!!  Eeww! eeewww! eeeww!).  I keep the piano lid firmly closed.  I don't do strings.

But I can't quit the mystery quilt, because quitters, they....

Well, they.....

Quit!

So now, the only way to finish strong is to conquer the chaos!....

And turn this:

Into this....

I had this box of neutrals -- mostly "junk" strips and strings and bits and bites...Almost all of it gone! GONE!

THANK YOU BONNIE!!!!!!

Sigh.  Who knew!?!?!

I have no idea what this mystery quilt will be when all is said and done.  But I will have conquered it like a hero.  A small step for most quilters, but a giant leap for my OCD tendencies and my "I don't do random" personality disorder.  I can't deny it's been fun!!  It's been a stretch for me, though! 

I've got 21 of the 60 needed squares completed.  The next step in the mystery will be revealed today...and I will be ready.  Soon. :-) 

Scripture tells us in Romans 8, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us" (verse 37, NIV).  The New American Standard version says "we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loves us."  (Emphasis mine)  Ain't it COOL!?!?!

Paul concludes the chapter with a classic (if you need a lift, this is a good place to go!):

"For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (verses 38-39, Amplified).

It's a good day!!! I am rolling in cotton! :-D

I am conquering the chaos, baby!!

Blessings!