“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”

Louisa May Alcott

Happy Friday!

Last week’s quotation and this one (the next two blog posts, too) are inspired by the Moda fabric by Gingiber called “Dwell in Possibilities.” The fabric is lovely and full of words!

I hope your week has been fruitful and satisfying! The studio has been a busy place...I completed one quilt and cut squares and washed fabric for two more quilts. I also have a third one on my mind---sometimes I like to let an order marinate in my brain before I start. Plus I talked and met with clients and delivered two orders. (I am writing all of this on Wednesday and Thursday, so hopefully Friday will be as promising in productivity!)

I want to let you know that I am into November for order finishes, so you should get Christmas orders in soon. I am usually full for December orders by mid-October at the latest. If you do not have a Christmas deadline, then we can continue to plan into the new year!

This week I completed a brilliant stars and stripes quilt for a client made from cotton fabrics...I will share more of it on Instagram soon...and that quilt is a reminder that I can make just about any quilted item you fancy, in addition to the t-shirt and memory quilts I make. I have some interesting orders coming up soon...finishing a tie quilt started by another quilter and a duvet cover with pillow shams! As a matter of fact, my list of orders is looking pretty intriguing! I have a king sized memory quilt from beautiful clothes and a bunch of fun pillows to make.

If you have a quilted item you are thinking about having made, then contact me. We can discuss it together! Also don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Sending Quilting Love,

Ginger

Coming Next Week: A discussion about layouts!

I am Reading: I just finished The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick, and I loved it. The story is sweet and engrossing. My husband suggested I read Wicked by Gregory McGuire, so I started that, and I checked out Tightrope by Simon Mawer from the library, and I started it this week, too. (Yep, I am back to more than one book!) I am also reading snippets of poetry. I am sad to hear about the widespread banning of books taking place across the country. I feel very strongly about children/people having access to books of all kinds and safe places to discuss them and explore ideas. Reading makes everyone more empathetic, and as a country we could use more empathy right now. My mother used to let me loose in the library, and she never said no to any book. I credit my parents and their willingness to allow me to explore books with impunity. Books are a safe haven to explore even the most fraught topic. Readers can gain insight into otherness and sameness without fearing consequences, and we have to give students the ability to have those safe experiences with books. Please urge your local school boards and state legislatures to keep politics out of reading. Let students explore and learn and gain empathy. And in terms of empathy, school boards and legislatures should read more, too.

“There is much more to Abby than the making of a quilt. She is a woman much like you and me: a wife, a mother, happy, lonely, tired, eager--we are all made up of conflicting emotions. Perhaps these very conflicts within herself are what led to the creation of the Log Cabin block. One side of the block is generally light and the other side is dark. Contrasting values in fabric make a distinctive pattern, much as our own conflicts give us dimensions, warmth, and realism.”

Log Cabin Quilts: A Brand New Story

Karen Murphy

“To sew is to pray. Men don’t understand this. They see the whole but they don’t see the stitches. They don’t see the speech of the creator in the work of the needle. We mend. We women turn things inside out and set things right. We salvage what we can of human garments and piece the rest into blankets. Sometimes our stitches stutter and slow. Only a woman’s eye can tell. Other times, the tension in the stitches might be too tight because of tears, but only we know what emotion went into the making. Only women hear the prayer.”

Four Souls

Louise Erdrich

Happy Friday, Everyone!

I was so busy working on last week’s tutorial that I forgot to give you a stitchey quotation, so this week I gave you two! Both books are worth a full read; I really enjoy the history of the Log Cabin book. Louise Erdrich is a prolific Native American author, and I love her work. The boys and I read her Birchbark series over several summers, and I absolutely love her novels...beautifully written, haunting, and timely.

By the way, so far all of my quotations come from quotation books that I keep as I read...yep, I am an utter nerd and a former English teacher...so I love beautiful quotations and I like to write them in notebooks. You would be surprised how often my notebooks have come in handy!

Some of my notebooks…no, I wasn’t kidding!

Well this week is basically a check in to see how your half square triangles are proceeding. Mine still need to be cut and sewn! I have been busy this week with graduation orders and other time sensitive work, so my cutting and sewing had to wait. However, I am planning on cutting and working on my 8” squares this weekend and next week.

Just to recap, I will need to cut 16 9 ⅜” squares from my solid fabrics and 16 9 ⅜” squares from my scrappy fabrics. Then I will sew them and trim the half square triangles to 8.5” for sewing into the quilt top. I should end up with 32 8.5” half square triangles. Would you like to see a video of that process? Or do you want to see any part of that process again? Just let me know in the comments, and I will see what I can do!

I am hoping to get all of my half square triangles cut, sewn, trimmed, and ready to piece by early to mid-July....I’ll keep you posted on how that goes! I will also let you know how my commissions are going, too! I am working on and finishing so many great quilts! Be sure to watch Instagram, also. I will post what I am finishing as I can. Some of the quilts are gifts, so I don’t like to post them until they have been received by their owners! The photograph above is a sneak peak of one I posted yesterday!

Please let me know if you have questions or need help with your half square triangles! I’ll be glad to help, and if I don’t know, then I will help you find out!

Sending Quilting Love,

Ginger

Coming Next Week: 8” half square triangles...I will try to have some finished for you to see!

I am Reading: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and Man in the Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud by Martin Gayford, and Emma by Jane Austin (She is still annoying me, by the way!), and I keep forgetting to mention that I read poetry almost everyday. Honest Engine by Kyle Dargan has been a staple for a while--it resides at my bedside. Poetry is like a suitcase---it has to be unpacked, dug around and wallowed in...really every word counts. Seamus Heaney is another favorite poet, Emily Dickenson, Rita Dove, Adrienne Rich...I could go on and on...I’ll try to remember to tell you what poetry I have read or reread each week, too. Now you see why my reading list tends to take a while! I would love to know what you are reading...

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