Organization can be key!

“He was a great teacher, Mr. da Silva.  He treated us with complete seriousness, as if we eighth graders, during fifth period, might settle something scholars had been arguing about for centuries.  He listened to our chirping, his hairline pressing down his eyes.  When he spoke himself, it was in complete paragraphs.  If you listened closely it was possible to hear the dashes and commas in his speech, even the colons and semi-colons.  Mr. da Silva had a relevant quotation for everything that happened to him and in this way evaded real life.  Instead of eating his lunch, he told you what Oblonsky and Levin had for lunch in Anna Karenina.  Or, describing a sunset from Daniel Deronda, he failed to notice the one that was presently falling over Michigan.”

Middlesex

      Jeffrey Eugenides

Happy Friday!

I hope you are well and have had a super week.  I chose today’s quotation in homage to the best teachers I know and to all of the teachers who are working to make places of learning wherever they are.  I know this school year is a challenge for everyone.

Last week I told you I was going to work on organizing and cleaning up the studio, and I feel very successful in that endeavor!  I have a few things left to do, but overall everything is neater and better organized, especially my orders.  Prior to the reorganization, orders were in either one of six stackable laundry baskets or they were in giant ziploc bags.  You can see how that would be cluttered after a while.  I now have all of my orders in containers (save one, but it is neatly tucked away), and I am so pleased with the room it created in the studio.  

New bins for orders creates more space in the studio!

My embroidery machine along side the big stackable laundry baskets. Do you spy the six quilts all packaged and ready to go?

I also dusted and organized shelves.  My husband had some books on shelves in the studio, and I packed those up and made space for fabric scraps.

My steam press and new fabric scrap shelves!

Shelf under my cutting table…everything within reach!

I also reorganized all of my thread and personal projects.  Now everything has a place and I feel like the studio runs more smoothly!  I will try to create a video for my stories or do a live video on Instagram of my studio, so that you can see how it is organized better!  Would you like that?

Thread and personal quilts. I have a new thread holder for my longarm thread…it is waiting to be hung on the wall.

I have also spent time binding, piecing, and quilting this week.  I have six quilts ready to deliver!

I am still chugging along on my half square triangles---I am getting so excited to see them come together!  How about yours?  Can I see some pictures?  Leave me a comment or send me a DM or tag me in your stories on Instagram.  

Have a great week. Stay safe.

Sending Quilting Love, 

Ginger

Coming Next Week: An update on the Anniversary quilt.  Definitely news on my secret plan I mentioned last week!

I am Reading: Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged).  I am also reading various poetry.  I haven’t started Mozart’s Starling yet, but I am still thinking about it...still...Edmond Dantes has me spellbound at the moment...at once tragic and beautiful...he is terrific and I am frightened for him. (Yes, I have read the book before, but I am the person who always cries at the end of A Tale of Two Cities...even though I know what is going to happen...and the person who hopes 1984 will end differently, even though I have read it a hundred times.)  Please let me know what you are reading...it really doesn’t matter what it is as long as it is giving you pleasure!

Studio Reorganizing!

“But our dreams are the anterooms between quickness and death---where we divest of meaning’s demands.”

“Conversations with Sleep (IV)”

Lines 19-21

Kyle Dargan

Happy Friday!

May I ask:  Where has August gone?  I can hardly believe we are so close to September.  Well, school has resumed for all of my boys (husband included both teaching and learning), and it has been an eventful week.  NCSU began classes a little over a week and a half ago with a hybrid in-person schedule and this afternoon (I am writing this Thursday evening!) undergraduate classes were moved to all online.  ASU looks like its Covid numbers are good so far, so we will hope Sam can safely stay on campus.  High School classes for my youngest have been underwhelming, but I think this week has been, really, just an acclimation week.  I think everyone is trying to settle in before major work starts.  I seriously want to give Sidney some work, though! (Can you feel the eye roll?)  Teachers, professors, administrators…everyone trying to school has my deepest sympathy and respect right now.

My week has been busy and enlightening...I have been wanting to move things around in my studio for a while now, and I have a pretty solid plan.  My business, five years in, is beginning to outgrow my little studio above the garage, so reorganization has become a necessity.  This week I started moving things around, and I think I have decided to dig in and finish the shuffle tomorrow.  Otherwise my head might explode!

Earlier this summer, I moved my desk, where I do paperwork and answer emails, completely out of the studio.  I now have a sweet, very organized desk in our dining room, and I love that set up.  (I am typing this blog there right now!)  In the studio this week, I cleaned off one bookcase, so that I can store fabric in it, and I moved my bolts of fabric to the corner where my table used to be.  The bolts are now more accessible, and they are organized and neat!  

Easily accessible and organized…I am so motivated and excited to finish more reorganizing for you to see!

I plan to move my embroidery machine to the corner where my bolts used to live, and I have acquired new bins to keep customer orders in.  I plan to get all of that squared away tomorrow, so I should have good pictures for next week.

The cleaning and organizing so far has been at odd times built around the work I am currently trying to complete, but I decided today that I need to just get organized.  My work-flow and my mind flow will appreciate and benefit from the studio being cleaner and more organized.  I hate to halt production of quilts for even one day, but I know that getting the studio finished in a day will be better for me.  And every little bit helps these days!

I am also looking at another big...and excellent...change for the business, but I will have more information about that later.   I have also been spending a lot of extra hours on this plan!

All of that being said, you know my half square triangles have been in tiny bits of production all week!  I will continue to work on those, but the Anniversary quilt is only one facet of this five year celebration!  I will not lose sight of it, though! How are your quilts going?  Can I see some pictures?  Are you struggling to get all of the half square triangles finished?  Let me know how things are going in the comments below.  Are you super peeved that I am taking so long?  Let me know! I would also love to see your work!

Have a great week. Stay safe.

Sending Quilting Love, 

Ginger

Coming Next Week: Okay...definitely studio pictures.  I’m sure an update on the Anniversary quilt, too.  And who knows, my other plan may be ready to be revealed, too! 

I am Reading: Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged).  I am also reading various poetry---Kyle Dargan’s Honest Engine lives on my nightstand--beautiful, timely, and important.  What are you reading? I would love to know!  I haven’t started Mozart’s Starling yet, but I am still thinking about it...still.  

Five Years on Saturday!

“I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide.”

Emily Bronte

I found the quotation in my quotation journal, which is a Bronte journal.

Hello and Happy Friday!

Well, I remembered the days correctly this week...I actually compose the blog earlier in the week in my head, and I type it up on Thursdays.  You understand my trouble last week, right?  So as I am writing this my oldest son is turning 19!  My youngest son turned 16 two weeks ago.  Where did the time go!?!  My oldest is also returning to his college campus on Saturday, and as I said last week, my extra work, like the anniversary quilt, would be relegated to the back burner of my very hot stove until that move in happens. 

I got a lot of work finished this week.  I currently have two large quilts and four wall hangings to bind. (Yes, I was piecing and quilting up a storm!) I also quilted, bound, and embroidered a label for another quilt.  Two or three other jobs are in my brain, percolating.  I delivered a quilt and consulted a number of clients.  

Outside of the work to keep my queue moving, the bits of time I usually allot to half square triangles, lately, has been taken up with finishing masks for said oldest child.  I want to make sure he has enough.  I let him choose the fabric, and I finished all of those yesterday. 

A satisfying stack!

I am also trying to finish more for my husband, who also works on a college campus, but I am still working on a good fit for him.  Once I get that done, his masks won’t take long because his masks are all black.    

How has your week been?  

On Saturday, while I am helping Sam move in, my business will be turning five!  I have been celebrating all summer, and I plan to continue until October, when I actually was completely up and running.  If you happen to think of me or the business on Saturday, then leave me a comment or send me a DM on Instagram!  I would love to hear from you!

Have a great week. Stay safe.

Sending Quilting Love, 

Ginger

Coming Next Week:  Okay, everyone in the house will be back into school and work full time, so I should be finding a new more expansive schedule.  I’ll let you know how that goes next Friday, but I hope to have pretty pictures of my triangles!

I am Reading: Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged).  I am also reading various poetry---Anne Sexton mostly still.  What are you reading? I would love to know!  I haven’t started Mozart’s Starling yet, but I am still thinking about it.  

Busy Week and Good Reads!

‘I always thought,’ says LF, ‘that an artist’s was the hardest life of all.’ Its rigour--not always apparent to an outside observer--is that an artist has to navigate forward into the unknown guided only by an internal sense of direction, keep up a set of standards which are imposed entirely from within, meanwhile maintaining faith that the task he or she has set him or herself is worth struggling constantly to achieve.  This is all contrary to the notion of bohemian disorder.

February 24, 2004

Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a

 Portrait by Lucian Freud

      Martin Gayford

Hello and Happy Friday!

Whew!  I feel like I have had a busy week.  I did a little Research and Development in mask pattern making, since I need to make masks for two of my men returning to their respective Universities. I made masks for the entire family early on in the pandemic, but I want to make more solid masks for the long term.  I think I like the process and pattern I have made; I just need to make sure I get the fit right.  Prototypes abound!  I did make two pretty masks that fit me, so that is progress!

Two pretty masks! I think the boys will prefer elastic ear pieces instead of the tie.

I also pieced four wall hangings, a Queen sized t-shirt quilt, quilted two King sized quilts, and cut and sewed more squares for the anniversary quilt.  I did not get any pictures taken of the half square triangles, and I know you are probably ready to move to the layout phase of this project. Don’t worry, I will be there soon!  

Four pieced wall hangings ready for quilting!

How has your week been?  What did you sew?  Please share pictures and your progress...also feel free to complain in the comments about how slow I am being! Honestly, I set aside the month of July to work on half square triangles, so I’m not really behind in my plan; we will see if I can stay that way on track!

Have a great week. Stay safe.

Sending Quilting Love, 

Ginger

Coming Next Week:  Finished Half Square triangles!

I am Reading: I finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and Man in the Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud by Martin Gayford.  Both excellent reads!  I am reading Elantris with my oldest son, so I was trying not to get too far ahead.  I got really excited and devoured the rest in one sitting, though, and now he will have to catch up!  I loved the Lucien Freud book so much that I ordered The Yellow House, the book Martin Gayford wrote about Vincent Van Gogh.  I ‘m so excited!  I have already read Vincent Van Gogh: The Life by Naifeh and Smith, which was a lovely read.  I highly recommend it!  I started Alexander Langlands book about Craft: Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts, and I am going to really like that book!  If you don’t know, I am a medievalist.  My concentration in college was Anglo Saxon and Medieval literature, and I love to read both in their original English.  Langlands is a Medieval scholar, and as I read the preface and the first few chapters, I realized how much I miss another medieval mind.  Plus...I think the topic of crafts is interesting, too!  I’ll keep you posted about that one---I think I will get good quotations out of it!  ! I am still reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged)  I am also reading various poetry---Anne Sexton mostly this week..  What are you reading? I would love to know!  My hand is also hovering over my copy of Mozart’s Starling...I might delve into it soon.  Do you read more than one book at a time?

A Reminder...

“There’s just this for consolation:  An hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult.”

The Hours

Michael Cunningham

One of ten beautiful quilts I made for a family after a loved one passed away.

Hello, Everyone!

This week I was reminded how important my work is to my customers and to myself.  Sometimes I get caught up in the administrative parts of my business...taxes, bills, supply orders, appointments...and I get caught up in deadlines and other responsibilities of being a custom commission based business.  And in getting caught up in those aspects of my business, the real heart of what I do slips into the background. 

I met with a long-time customer this week.  She gets t-shirt quilts made for each of her children as they graduate from college, and I have had the honor of making two quilts previously for her, and making a third for her this year. This particular customer came to me based on a good friend’s recommendation.  Her friend was also having t-shirt quilts made for her children as they graduated from college.  I made two quilts myself for her, and I helped make two earlier quilts for her when I worked for Patchwork Memories.  She and I had planned for me to make her youngest child’s quilt in 2019 when he graduated from college.  I did what I usually do, and put her on my calendar to contact in February 2019, so that she could get in my graduation quilt line up.  I emailed her in February, as promised, but I didn’t get a response.  She had mentioned that her son might take a little extra time to graduate, so I didn’t think too much about it.  I put a note to contact her later, and I thought about her this spring when I started thinking about graduation quilts in February. 

When I met with her friend this week, she informed me that her friend had suddenly passed away a few years ago, and she asked me if the final quilt for her friend had been made.  I told her I didn’t think so, but I would check my records to be sure.  After our meeting I went back to look at my records, and found all that I said above about trying to contact her in February 2019.  My customer who passed away was a wonderfully kind person, and her friend and I realized the importance of the quilts she had made for her children. Her friend is going to see if we can get the final quilt finished for her.

I often deal with the aftermath of death in my work.  I work with grieving family members, and I have the honor of building and designing quilts to remember lost loved ones.  Every year I make quilts for Carolina Donor Services from the quilt blocks families make to memorialize their loved ones who donated organs upon their death.  I just delivered this year’s quilts last week.  All of these quilts are so special and comforting.  The Carolina Donor Services blocks always give me pause to think about the people missing from other people’s lives, but the blocks are always so joyful and full of life.  Each block is lovingly put together by the family, and each one celebrates that life lost and the life given with the organ donation.

The quilts I made for my long-time client and her friend were quilts of joy, too ...moving from childhood and young adulthood to adulthood.  These ladies saved shirts all through their children’s lives, and I was stunned and saddened to hear that my customer had died.  However, I was also glad to know her children have a wonderful reminder of their mother’s love and joy in their accomplishments and lives.  Each of their quilts show her love and care, and I feel glad to be able to be a part of that process.  My long-time client and I will do our best to get that last quilt made if the family would like to have it done, and I will once again be reminded of how important the quilts I make can be for people.

Anniversary Quilt Update:  I am still sewing and trimming blocks...how about you?

Have a great week.  Remind your loved ones they matter.  Stay safe.

Sending Quilting Love, 

Ginger

Coming Next Week:  Finished Half Square triangles?  I really do hope so! :)

I am Reading:  Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and Man in the Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud by Martin Gayford.  The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged)  I am also reading various poetry.  What are you reading? I would love to know!

Sewing Balm and Quilting Ideas!

“For if the artist love the medium enough to submit himself to its actual qualities, resisting exaggerated notions of what the  medium can do at his beck and call, then the result will likely be something recognizable as a work of art, a transaction between the mind and the world that is played out in the material reality of the medium.”

How Poems Get Made

James Logenbach

Medium stipple or meander I use for quilting t-shirt quilts.

Hello, Everyone!

Where is July going?  I feel like we just started the month, and now we are half-way through it.  So many unknowns this month, too...will school start?  What will it look like?  Is it safe?  What will be missed if students stay at home?  I have a sophomore in college and a junior in high school, and all of the options look weak and unsatisfactory.  We are still waiting for the county to make decisions about school, and the university still insists school will begin, but they have not offered any details about move-in or specifics about classes.  I do not envy anyone having to make those decisions, either.  If I am worried, then I am sure school/university staff are having sleepless nights!

Right now I do not control any of those decisions, so I am trying (unsuccessfully sometimes) to not worry about them.  Today I cannot affect any changes regarding school...by the way my husband works at a university, too...so school questions abound in our house...so I will not let those concerns niggle my mind--at least not much. If I keep saying that will I begin to practice it?  I hope so! 

I do find a lot of solace in my work.  Sewing has always been a balm, and I try not to take for granted the quiet hours I spend in my studio.  Today’s quotation reminds me of how sewing really takes hold of me...I really do submit myself to my medium, and I love what arises from that willing submission.

Besides working on custom orders, finishing four quilts and delivering them, this week, I worked more on half square triangles...I hope to finish next week, so that we can begin laying out the quilt!  I’m so excited to get to that part!  How are your squares going?  Please don’t hesitate to ask questions or send me pictures!  Do we need a hashtag to follow on Instagram….hmmm…that sounds like a good idea! 

As I worked piecing squares and dreaming about the top as a whole, the inevitable happened:  I started thinking about how I want to quilt the Anniversary quilt.  Do you think about quilting as you are piecing?  I always do.  For t-shirt quilts, I almost always use a medium sized stipple for quilting because it allows me to meander around heavy paint, buttons, placards, or other odds and ends one finds in quilts made from clothing.  So as I am prepping shirts or pieces of the quilt, I think about how I will need to quilt around and within that block.  I think that forethought helps when the top actually gets loaded for quilting.  

For memory quilts, often also made from clothing, I sometimes quilt something special but it usually incorporates a meander, so that I can still have the freedom to avoid trouble spots.  All of my quilting is hand-guided, too, so my patterns are limited to what I know how to do.  Though I am always trying out new things!

Small stipple and meandering heart quilting samples. I should finish these even though they are small—-I have been using them for my mug rugs! The meandering heart has lush minky on the back of it. I love to cuddle it!

I’m wondering if I want to do some custom quilting on the Anniversary quilt or if it should reflect my most common quilting pattern?  Do I want to custom quilt the larger half square triangles?  Do I want to do one meandering pattern in the solid spaces and a different one in the scrappy spaces?  Do I want to quilt a fancy border design...I mean it is a celebration quilt!?!

I have not made any decisions yet, but I am thoroughly enjoying thinking about the options!  What kind of quilting do you like on a quilt...a dense pattern, lose pattern, all over or custom quilting?  Do you quilt your own quilts or will you give your top over to the trusted and capable hands of a longarm quilter?  Leave me a comment or send me a DM.  I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts about quilting!

Have a great week! Be kind. Stay safe.

Sending Quilting Love, 

Ginger

Coming Next Week:  Finished Half Square triangles?

I am Reading:  Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and Man in the Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud by Martin Gayford. (I am really enjoying this book---I read a little each night before bed, and I am fascinated by Freud’s mind and artistic thinking.  I also love the view of the sitter!)  The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged)  I am also reading various poetry.  What are you reading? I would love to know!

Small Half Square Triangles!

“It was an act of courage to take the scraps of life provided and stitch them together, wrestling the chaos into order, taking what had been cast off and creating something from it, something useful, beautiful, and strong, something whose true value was known only to the heart of the woman who made it.”

The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

Happy Friday, Everyone!

I hope you have had a lovely, productive week.  I had sewing machine issues this week, but I have rectified those---just in time to bring the week to a close.  Alas.  Well, I did manage to be productive on Thursday, and I will likely work this weekend--I will make up time that way!

I did cut all of my solid 5 ⅜” squares for my small half square triangles for  the Anniversary quilt this week...I didn’t have to sew anything to cut those! :)  I needed 128 4.5” half square triangles, or 64 of each solid for the interior part of the quilt.  I needed 34 squares of each solid for the border half square triangles.  So I needed a total of 98 squares.  I cut 103...giving me five extra so that I have more options when I am thinking about the layout of the blocks.

My stacks of solid squares…now I have to cut the scrappy squares!

Now I will start cutting my scrappy squares...I need the same amount as the solid squares, and I think as I cut those I will begin to piece them, too.  I think breaking up the piecing will help make the process easier!

How far did you get this week?  Remember, I would love to see your work.  Leave me a comment, tag me on Instagram, or send me a DM!

Sending Quilting Love, 

Ginger

Coming Next Week:  More small half square triangles...I am so excited!

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.  New Poetry didn’t happen...I will find time soon!  I am addicted to Emma.  I thought I knew what was going to happen, but maybe I don’t.  Now I have to find out!

Half Square Triangle Check-In and Some Readerly Stuff!

“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...

Finished Fibers is Turning Five in August!

“It was an act of courage to take the scraps life provided and stitch them together, wrestling the chaos into order, taking what had been cast off and creating something from it, something useful, beautiful, and strong, something whose true value was known only to the heart of the woman who made it”

Round Robin: An Elm Creek Quilts Book

Jennifer Chiaverini

I don’t know if you know it, but Finished Fibers, LLC turns five in August!  Yes, five!  I have had the absolute pleasure of making quilts and building my business for nearly five years, and I am so excited! I think the quotation above really gets to the heart of my work, and the joy and creativity I enjoy in the process.  You can read last week’s blog if you want to know more!  

I think a five year anniversary deserves a special celebration, and besides reorganizing and renovating new studio space (Would you like a blog post or two about that? Leave me a comment to let me know!), I think I need a way to commemorate such a special milestone!  What better way to celebrate than to make a quilt?!?

I have lots of scraps from the many (Check out the Gallery!) quilts I have made, so I would like to make a quilt that is five years worth of scrappy.  I saw a quilt in Moonrise Kingdom, a sweet little Wes Anderson film that you should definitely watch, and I have created a pattern based on what I saw.  Suzi’s mom, played by Frances McDermott, has what looks like a quilt on her bed made from half square triangles. 

Finished Fibers Anniversary Quilt Layout!

So...I am going to make this quilt, and I am going to try to finish it by mid-August in addition to all of the other customer quilts I am making!  Would you like to work along with me?  Would you like to be a fly on the wall in my process? Would you like me to present it as a sew-along...quilt-along...a celebration-along?  Leave me a comment and let me know how you might like to participate! 

Sending Quilting Love,

Ginger

Coming Next Week:  More Anniversary Quilt Goodness?  Another Idea?

I am Reading:  Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and Man in the Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud by Martin Gayford, Mrs. Bennett Has Her Say by Jane Juska, and I think I will read Emma by Jane Austin...I’ll let you know next week!

Counterpane Comfort

“Upon waking next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg’s arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner.  You had almost thought I had been his wife.  The counterpane was of patchwork, full of odd little particolored squares and triangles; and this arm of his tattooed all over with an interminable Cretan labyrinth of a figure, no two parts of which were of one precise shade--owing I suppose to his keeping his arm at sea unmethodically in sun and shade, his shirt sleeves irregularly rolled up at various times--this same arm of his, I say, looked for all the world like a strip of that same patchwork quilt.  Indeed, partly lying on it as the arm did when I first awoke, I could hardly tell it from the quilt, they so blended their hues together; and it was only by the sense of weight and pressure that I could tell Queequeg was hugging me.”

Chapter 4; The Counterpane

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

Counterpane:  The outer covering of a bed, generally more or less ornamental, being woven in a raised pattern, quilted, made of patchwork, etc. a coverlet, a quilt.  OED definition. [Melville is one of the examples in the OED]

I often think of this quotation when I think about my work making quilts--one because it is beautiful writing--two because it really gets to the heart of quilts for me.  The juxtaposition of Queequeg, the so-called “savage,” warm-hearted, preternatural, heroic, and the homespun, patchwork quilt is a lovely picture that ends with that unconscious hug at the end.  For me quilts are all of these things.

Quilted items date back centuries, and their utility, comfort, and beauty are deeply embedded in our human consciousness.  Knights wore quilted garments for protection and padding under their armor.  Fabric scraps and worn out or out-grown clothing found their way into quilts that were the only defence against a particularly harsh winter.  Crazy quilts, featuring hours of hand embroidery, have been lovingly created simply because the process and the finished product are beautiful.

Quilts are the very essence of humanness---the base of who we are.  Our need for protection, comfort, and beauty are all found in a quilt, which is, I think, the reason why I find so much joy in my work.  I love making lovely, meaningful pieces for people, and  I love the process and the meaning in the quilts.

I think today, more than ever, quilts can be a beautiful balm for our souls.  Even with spring slipping into summer, when we won’t necessarily wrap up in a quilt, simply having a quilt in a room---on a bed---over the back of a couch----draped over a chair---or spread out over the grass---can be pleasing and comfortable.

I love a good quilt (or two or three or in a stack!)  Quilts remind me of what is important and essential:  Love, comfort, security, and hugs.

Sending Quilting Love,

      Ginger

P.S. By the way, I love Moby Dick---It is a viscerally written catalogue of a horrifying industry used as a backdrop to a close study of the patchwork that is humanity.  There is so much beauty amongst all of its ugliness...and who doesn’t love a novel with a whole chapter devoted to a quilt. 

P.S.S. I love the OED, too.  I used to spend hours pouring over it at NCSU’s DH Hill Library.

Coming Next Week:  My Favorite Kind of Quilt to Make!