June Travels

On Wednesday, June 9, we drove to Kansas City, and returned home Wednesday, June 16. 

In Kansas City I got to see my dad for the first time since visiting last October. This time I actually hugged him - more than once! -  and on two different occasions, sat in his living room for a good chat. It was so great to see him!

From Kansas City, we went to Iowa for four days, our first extended visit since moving to Florida nine years ago today! While in the West Des Moines area, I had the opportunity to meet with Hope Quilters and see how that group has grown - and what a huge stash they have! - to become an extremely giving organization.

Hope Quilters began in about 2010, when I first taught a series of beginner quiltmaking lessons to a group of women at Lutheran Church of Hope. This is also when I wrote my book, First Time Quiltmaking, based on the many beginner quiltmaking lessons I taught in area churches. The first blog post for Hope Quilters was written by me back on February 24, 2012.  As they say, "The rest is history." So, it was a real treat to be with them again.

I also got to worship in person at my beloved church, attending the traditional service at 8 am Sunday morning. What a joy to be in that spirit-filled place again!

On June 11-12, hubs accompanied me to my high school reunion in Newton, Iowa. Our class has held a reunion every five years, so this was the tenth time we've gotten together. I attended eight of those ten times.

Hubs took a blurry picture of classmates being photographed for a formal group shot. But, you get the idea that of my class of about 380 students, 73 of whom have passed away, the turnout of 151 classmates was great!

When we drove back home, we brought our 11 year-old grandson, Tay, with us. Though the car ride was long and tedious, he was a good trooper.

playing putt-putt

At the moment, his preferring method of travel is by golf cart! Daily swims at the pool are a must...

... unless it's to go to the ocean, which we did for two days. He was absolutely thrilled to play in the Atlantic Ocean at New Smyrna Beach, and had a grin on his face the entire time we spent being knocked around by the rough waves. I can attest to the grin and the rough waves, because I was with him 100 percent of the time. I have the bashing and spotty sunburn to show for it!

Tay also proved his love for oysters by eating an appetizer's worth of them. 

We're spoiling him rotten while we can! Trix, Grape Crush, pudding parfaits, and key lemon pie are favs.

Needless to say, I haven't accomplished much. Stitched just a few of these English paper-pieced Prudence blocks while in the car.

While the fellas watch soccer or wrestling on TV, I did some more braiding on my rug. In Kansas City I raided our daughter's clothing donation pile, and found the perfect, orange-colored long-sleeved knit top to strip-cut. My rug is about 34" X 37", near to being finished.

Happy News!

In May I chose two of my quilts to submit for the MQG's Modern Quilt Exhibit at the International Quilt Festival (IQF) in Houston this coming October 28-31. Each year the MQG allows its members to submit two quilts (at no charge) for exhibit consideration. If a quilt is accepted, it's automatically entered also into QuiltCon the following February. 

I didn't anticipate the email that arrived last Thursday, letting me know that a quilt of mine was accepted! "Illusions of Victor," the quilt I made in April 2020, for the Central Florida MQG Mid-Century Modern Artist Challenge, will be displayed at IQF in October, and at QuiltCon 2022 in Phoenix! 

"Illusions of Victor," 48" X 65½"

I've been beside myself with excitement! This means SO much to me, having attempted two previous times to have a quilt juried into the MQG's special exhibit in Houston. 

My only regret about making this quilt is the backing I chose. Because we were in the midst of pandemic quarantine, I made do with whatever large chunks of fabric I could pull from my stash. The back does nothing to enhance the quilt.

If I could figure out how to cover it up, or do it over again, I would! But at this point, it's part of the quilt's story. "Illusions of Victor" won't be winning any prizes, but I'm honored that it will be displayed among the quilts of other, much more renown modern quilt makers: Michelle Wilke; Steph Skardal; Katherine Upitis; Karen K. Ray; Sarah Lefebvre; and Patty Dudek... to name a few. Our new Central Florida MQG media coordinator, Rosemary, wrote a nice blog post about it. 

I'm also excited to begin teaching again, in person, and have begun scheduling guild workshops. I have three solid bookings, so far, through 2021. See my Programs and Workshops tab at the top of this blog homepage. 

Book Recommendation 

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is the author's latest release. (Remember her other great titles? The Nighingale and The Great Alone.) Interestingly, she finished writing the book during the pandemic.

The story, ironically, is all about hardship due to the Dust Bowl, in the early 1930s. The story follows Elsa a well-to-do young woman who ends up in a shotgun wedding, and learning the life of a hard-working Texas farm family. When drought and dust storms threaten her life and those of her children, she makes the difficult decision to go west to find something better way. Yet even in California, she suffers ill-treatment as just another of thousands of migrant workers who have fled the Great Plains. Elsa's story is sad - a long-suffering woman who endures her husband's desertion, and her teenage daughter's aloofness and rebellion. Though this story is depressing because Elsa's life is so full of hardship, there's always hope for the next generation.

At the conclusion of the book, it was helpful to listen to an interview with the author and narrator, Julia Whelan. Ms. Hannah's process for researching and writing a novel, giving voice to her characters, and then bidding them farewell is enlightening. And it was fascinating to learn how Ms. Whelan researches and prepares to give voice to and act each character. I have a huge respect for what a skilled narrator can do for a book!

Linda's score: 4.6/5.0

Today marks the ninth anniversary of our move-in to this house in Central Florida. On June 21, 2012 we moved in just as Tropical Storm Debby started. I can't believe how quickly the years have flown by, even with a tediously long year of Coronavirus. We're very content in this house with no itch to change anything, or relocate. The weather suits both of us, and though the distance from family has not always been easy, the wonderful visits we've had - back and forth - help ease that gap. God is good! Linda

Excavating

It's been quiet here for a week. But only here, not in my house! There's quite a bit of sorting, excavation and purging happening in our basement. Everything is topsy turvy. I thought that after several weeks of this I would have touched, examined, considered, and made decisions about what to do with this or that, but I have not! My slow progress might be blamed on caring, perhaps too much, about who is getting this stuff. I want to find good homes for my UFOs, patterns, books, magazines, yarns, craft items and such. They must go to places where they'll be valued, used and appreciated. This is a much more time-consuming way to purge oneself of stuff, but it makes me feel a little better.

As I unearth each treasure I find myself shaking my head at younger me asking, "What were you thinking to buy that?" How could I not have foreseen that there's a price to pay for 23 years of living in the same house and accumulating!? Oh, I've given away many things, but there are even more things I've clung to for no sensible reason. "Just in case" never happens. Still, why is it so difficult to simplify? 

In between pondering how one, who doesn't think she hoards, can acquire so much stuff, I have taken snatches of time to ignore the mess and focus on sewing. It's restorative!

These Blogger's BOM blocks are from December. I'm still liking my pink and green combo. My quilt will be called "Strawberry Fizz and Lime Pop." 

I spent a good chunk of time scrounging through a large bin of small pieces so I could cut loose and mindlessly sew 36 funky Ezekiel blocks. In Stitchin' Mission we make them into New Life quilts. I don't bother with precise quarter-inch seams, just sewing a bunch of pieces together until I make a hunk large enough to cut out a 6-1/2" square.

I needed 36 blocks to make a small sashing and cornerstones quilt.

I put it together, quilted and bound in the past week. It's 49" X 49".

Hope Quilters is hosting a Quilt-a-Thon on Friday and Saturday, February 3-4, so we can teach others how to make Ezekiel blocks that we'll sew into 48" square to 50" square quilts that have been requested by Mercy Children's Center, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, here in Des Moines.

Whenever I make a donation quilt, it's an opportunity to try a new-to-me free-motion quilting design. The idea for this free-hand spiral design comes from Fran-tastic Stitch Witchery. I like it, and it was easy to quilt. No marking needed.

It makes me happy to have made this quilt back from my stash. I used up one whole piece of fabric and some orphan blocks.

For "fun," as I've been writing this blog post, I'm scanning photos on our home printer. After learning that our photos, stored in adhesive photo albums since the mid-70's and 80's, are damaged, we've decided to remove them from the albums and digitize them for safe keeping. With approximately 18 albums that hold about 80-90 photos each, and scanning at 600 dpi at the rate of one minute per photo...  It's taking days to do! Though it will be totally worthwhile in the end - both our kids will get CDs of their own - gosh, I'd way rather be sorting, excavating, purging, sewing! Linda

Reentering Reality Since Retreating

Three days and two nights of almost non-stop sewing, away from home, were invigorating and draining. It's invigorating to be with 12 quilters who have different tastes, and fun to see them utilizing different techniques for creating quilts. Draining because I stayed up too late, including until 2 a.m. Sunday morning, sewing!

Here are some of our Hope Quilters, minus one quilter who could come only for one day. That's me, lower right. Would you believe, there are FOUR Linda's in this picture!?

The quilt on the wall behind us is none other than my still-progressing Friendship Medallion quilt that I'm putting together according to instructions parceled out by Patchwork Pumpkin, in Australia. I've completed seven steps now. Part eight will wrap it up.

It has, most assuredly, been the scrap-buster quilt I hoped it would be. But I still have heaps of those colorful 1-1/2" cut squares, used in the nine-patch blocks. I have a basket of them that I'm sewing into my first-ever Leaders and Enders project. 

Here are pictures of what a few people were working on. Lola is showing us the quilt from Elm Creek Quilters, Sylvia's Bridal Quilt.

Lola and her mother have been working on this together for the past five years. It's just stunning!

Jodi worked on this creation using a collection of Kaffe fabrics.

And she completed this creative quilt top.

Rachel used Ezekiel blocks to make this New Life quilt that will be given to a mission.

Help! I've fallen sewn blocks together incorrectly, and I can't get up can't take so many apart by myself! What better place to make a mistake and have friends help deconstruct lots of patches? That's what good friends do!

These are 60-degree diamonds. I began making them with Carla when she and I attended a November retreat. At our Hope Quilters retreat I finished sewing all 225 diamonds for Picket Fence. Yay!

I put only some of the blocks on the design wall, so I could again marvel over the optical effect. Isn't it something?! String-pieced blocks are so easy to sew together, but it's the value contrast - dark, medium, light - that makes this design so striking.  It will be just plain fun to lay out all the pieces and begin sewing them together!

One of our quilters brought along a sack of zippers from which we could take whatever we wanted. I had to giggle when I saw this zipper. First of all, check out the price for a metal zipper. Only 55 cents! Second, see the color name? Tango. This year, 2012, is the color year for Tangerine Tango. Ah, what once was old is new again. Now if we could only go back to those prices!

Reality this week means it's back to Bible study, taking my VW Bug in for servicing, getting my annual check-up, choir practice, and house purging. The list of to-sell and to-giveaway items continues to grow while the piles do too! Pretty soon I'll be needing to actually, physically, move these things out of the house. I'm trying to find deserving homes.

Our three Kansas City grandchildren came for an overnight the day I returned from retreat. They so seldom visit us - we're most often going there - that it was a treat to see them toddling through our house. Is there anything much cuter than little boys wearing fire truck sleepers? Linda

Tay 28 months; Aesa 14 months

Addison's Quilt, Finished

In April I blogged about a group of us, Hope Quilters, making a quilt for Addison. She's a 2-1/2 year-old who's been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

To show their support and give Addison something to wrap up in during her hospital stays, family and friends donated fabrics that we used to assembly this 44" X 49" Attic Windows quilt, using this free pattern. To make the quilt larger, we simply added more rows/columns of 4" window blocks.

Isn't it a cute girly-girl quilt?

We hope the large variety of novelty prints will give Addison lots of hours of looking and chatter that will distract her from her illness and treatment.

Some of Addison's friends made blocks that we used to sew the quilt back.

Together, we're praying that Addison "will gain new strength."

Winter Retreat

What happens when you put together:

• a room of 12 quilters who know one another, and a few who don't;
• oodles of quilting gadgets and rotary supplies;
• quilting books and stashed fabric;
• dozens of unfinished blocks;
• a few irons and ironing boards;
• nine sewing machines;
• bedding, clothes, and personal items;
• food and drinks;
• and chocolate?

The makin's for a quilting retreat you might find pretty much any place in the world!

Err. Well. Almost any place in the world.

To say it's been cold in Iowa is an understatement.

(But doesn't she look happy about it!?)

Old man winter been beating us, almost relentlessly. In fact, our Hope Quilters group took an eleventh hour vote Friday afternoon as to whether or not we should brave the elements to travel to Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp retreat center for our long-planned, one-night quilt retreat. The vote was for "bravery," so in spite of Saturday morning's -7 F (-22C) temperature, we retreated. We're all glad we did!

Linda, Erika, Linda, Crystal, Lorna, Jeri, Linda, Laura, Susan, Michelle, Norma, and Kim (Did I miss any of the Lindas?) had a fabulous time together, sharing lots of chatter and laughs as we stayed snuggly warm in our sewing cocoon.

After a long Saturday of nearly non-stop sewing, and waking to more of the same on Sunday, we gave thanks with a favorite Bible verse:

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and sew in it!

Psalm 118:24 (NIV, and revised by Hope Quilters).

May you too rejoice and be glad, for every day, no matter what you're doing.