With A LOT of Help From A Friend

My friend, Dotty, came to visit me for several days after Christmas.  We had a great time--went to the movies, out to eat (had a HUMONGEOUS helping of tiramisu on NewYears Eve), went to the yarn store, played cards and just generally had a great time.  But, most importantly, we had a MISSION.  We had decided to make a quilt for a mutual friend.  And this is what we made--Prince's Feather from the October 2008 issue of McCall's Quilting Magazine.  It was amazing.  We agreed on all the fabric choices--keeping in mind that we needed to include blue.  And Dotty had brought the perfect blue for the ferns.  We fused, positioned and blanket-stitched all the ferns, pieced the entire quilt and pin basted it in 3 days--in addition to all the other things we did..  Then I quilted it and sent it to Dotty where she put on the binding and label and shipped it to our friend.  And our friend LOVED it.
What a way to spend the holiday.  We received so very much joy from the creating of the quilt and the laughs we had while we were doing it.  And I really like the finished product.  What more could one want for a Christmas gift than to spend time with a good friend and having a great time?

Bearing Witness

 Several years ago, the art group that I belonged to in Charleston was invited to present an exhibition at Charles Towne Landing, a state park that is situated on the site of the original settlement (www.charlestowne.org) in that area.  This is a beautiful park and well worth a visit if you're in the area.
Anyway, as preparation for the exhibit, the first thing is to get inspiration  for your quilts, right?  So . . .we all spent several hours there walking around, taking pictures and, generally, having a nice time.
I was struck by the carved statue of this Indian.  It is rustic and weather-worn and the expression on his face is one of dignity and (to me) sorrow.  It made me think of how often people are displaced from their homes worldwide--through greed, strife, injustice . . .you name it.  So, he was going to be the subject of my quilt.
Well . . .about that time we moved back to the mountains and my "main man" was put on the back burner due to many things related to moving and life in general.  BUT this winter, I was re-inspired and decided that this was the right time.

With a subject so large--and long--I knew I needed to use a fusible appliqué technique in which I would join sections of his head and headdress and then put the entire piece together.  If you try to do the piece as a whole, it can be really difficult as you manuever the many tiny pieces.
So here is a couple of sections joined together.  By the time I had all of the pieces fused and connected, I was working on four appliqué sheets!  I then GENTLY peeled the whole thing off from the sheets and tacked it onto the background fabric.

Here is the finished top before any thread painting.  I really debated over what to do as I moved forward.  The original carving is well worn by the weather and time.  It has a lot of cracks on its surface.  I wanted to try to duplicate this feeling without making the entire piece one big crack.

And this is the result.  I am fairly well pleased.  Two things to note:
I put a red tear coming from his left eye--representing loss and betrayal.  Also, the symbols on the right side of the quilt are all Native symbols with meanings that I wanted to emphasize--such as courage, peace, friendship, love and good health.
I'm actually glad that I didn't make this quilt  just after my visit to Charles Towne Landing because I think that delay meant that I put more thought and feeling into it.  For me, this quilt represents not only the Native Americans, but also, the slaves that were brought to this country and abused, the Jews that were exterminated during WWII for no other reason than that they were different (as well as the Japanese Americans who were interned), the people today that are being tortured and killed for no other reason than the very fact that they exist . . .All of these people and more .  It is good to stop and think . . .simply think and remember--not to forget--and  to let the remembering prevent us from adding to this list.

Promises, Promises

 For the past few Christmases, my husband and I have agreed not to give each other presents for Christmas.  Like so many people today, we really have everything we need--so why buy something we don't need or particularly want?
(One thing I do--also for the past several years is to pick up and carry around merchandise that I THINK I want and see if I "bond" with it.  And so many times, I put it back.  Just yesterday in Joann's, I was trying very hard to use three 50% off coupons and ended up leaving with nothing--after carrying a couple of things around with me while I shopped).
ANYWAY, on Christmas morning there were 3 packages under the tree that didn't belong there.

My husband had broken the rules! O.K. O.K--let's just see what's in them . . .The first one was from the dog and had a new pair of gardening gloves--heavy duty for pulling more ivy up come springtime.  Very useful and much appreciated.  The 2nd package had a memory card.  So now I'm thinking:  How did he figure out what kind of card I use in my camera? (and the sad thing was that I didn't realize that it was the wrong card for my point and shooter.  Shows you how much I know about my own stuff!).
Even when I started opening the biggest box I had NO idea what was in it (How naive can one be?)
I was absolutely floored to find this beautiful camera--and overwhelmed--another learning curve to traverse.  I've looked at the 35 millimeter cameras for a long time as I walked through various stores, but I sure didn't pick one up and carry it around to see if I bonded with it.  I was  mad that he broke the rules and VERY overwhelmed with the camera itself but, but, but . . .I LOVE IT.  I use a camera a lot as I consider ideas for quilts and it has taken me no time at all to bond with it, after the fact.  Look at the close up photo of one of my quilts.  Way better than I could have done with my point and shoot.
So .  . . my husband definitely broke the rules this year, but he knew my heart better than I did.  Can one ask for a greater blessing?

Gettin' Crackin'

For many people--and I am one of them--in recent years the Christmas season has been a time of sadness rather than joy.  Events in our lives have conspired to make it a time of tears (and compensation eating) and hopelessness concerning our ability to change our circumstances.   One of the ways that I dealt with Christmas this year was to stay busy--because that way you have less time to focus on things you can't change--and, hopefully accomplish something constructive.  Less moping and more hoping.  I did a LOT of sewing.  And creating something out of nothing made things a bit better each time I sat down at the machine.
When we moved back to the mountains of North Carolina, I got rid of all of my scraps--except the batiks.  You can see the big basket of them in the first picture.  I sifted through all of the scraps

looking for purples and creams, having decided to make a log cabin quilt.  I ironed and cut, cut and ironed, cutting strips 1 1/14" wide and then started piecing.  As the blocks came together, I really enjoyed seeing the way the colors worked together ( and as I didn't have enough cream-colored fabrics and added other light-toned ones that were in the basket).

There were no rules for the piecing.  I didn't paper piece to assure accuracy--I didn't even cut the correct sizes for the strips.  I just sewed and trimmed off the ends.  I did press the omponentsof the blocks as I went along, but I didn't press the rows of blocks until they were all sewn together.  It wasn't a show quilt--I didn't spend a lot of time on the quilting.  I just sewed and sewed and listened to Books on CDs.  It was soothing and satisfying.

And here you can see the finished quilt.  The only "new" fabric I used was for the border.  What am I going to do with it?  I don't know.  This time it was definitely the journey, not the destination.
And along the way this year, I learned a pretty good lesson.  We truly can make our own happiness.  This quilt made me happy--as did several other things during the season.  We had friends for dinner on Christmas and it was a joy-filled time .  After Christmas a friend came for several days and, together, we made a quilt for another friend.  It brought us both a sense of deep satisfaction to do something for someone else.  We also went to a movie, played cards and shopped for  yarn in a wonderful knit shop.
So. . .Was this Christmas what I would have wished for in my perfect world?  Definitely not.  However, it was pretty darn good and, for that, I am thankful.
My resolution for the New Year?  Focus, focus, focus on the things that are good.  Practice gratitude and be thankful for the people that are in my life.
May your year be filled with more blessings than you can imagine.