Going Forward

After weeks of contemplation,

I have decided to stop posting here

in order to use that time for

exploring more of the possibilities

waiting in my studio

(vs. on the computer, looking back

at what has already been done).

For those who have followed the posts

covering my first years of quilty adventure,

I appreciate each and every comment you've shared.

What has been posted here will remain,

but I have moved my AAQI Journey page.

For current real-time glimpses into 

my ongoing love affair with color and quilting,

please visit me at Me and My Quilts.

Hugs to one and all!

Resting Spot

Temple of the Dragon

My first quilt featuring all Asian fabrics.

This one now resides on our younger son's bed.

Gorgeous.

April 2007 Journal Quilt - Mindful Moodling

I had surgery on my foot during April 2007,

so while I was restricted and off work,

I had time to sit and stitch

(between pain medicine induced naps).

I had already made a couple of Priority Quilts

for AAQI using my moodling technique,

so it became my technique-of-choice

for April's journal quilt.

Doing ~

simply for the sake of doing ~

no right or wrong,

just the pure joy of stitching.

The quote printed on the tag on the back reads:

"Our society demands constant activity,
constant achievement,
and tireless motion.
Anything done for fun,
anything which serves no logical purpose,
is suspect."

Moodling,
which I learned from Brenda Uleland's book
"If You Want To Write,"
is "a precious gift we have sacrified
in the name of accomplishment."

"Children know how to moodle,
they are natural virtuosos at it.
You never see a child look up
from his blocks to say,
'Man, I really should work on my taxes soon.'"

"You never see a young child stop to question
the motivation of a game or joke."

"Children,
precious moodlers that they are,
have enormous powers of concentration.
All of us were once moodlers,
whether we admit it or not.
But the art of moodling is drummed out of us
pretty quickly.
We put away our imaginary friends.
We close the coloring book.
We become  . . . grownups.
We lose the opportunity to see
a castle in a pile of backyard twigs."

Elsie's Pinwheels

This crib size pinwheel quilt was pieced by my grandmother.

I remember covering my baby sister with it

(although it was a yarn-tied comforter then).

Like the other rescue quilts of my grandmother's,

I gently removed the yarn ties,

the poly fiberfill batting,

and the stained muslin backing.

I added new inner and outer borders

and handed it off to Chris for quilting.

What a sweet, wonderful little quilt!

Fozzie's Feet

Created using the Barrister's Block pattern

(closely related to the Bear Paw block)

found on the Quilter's Cache website,

this quilt was originally conceived to hang

on the wall behind my desk at work.

Barrister's Block seemed appropriate

for a law office ~

although the colors are not

the least bit subdued.

Leftover pieces were used to create

the colorful piano key border

and the half-square triange corner blocks

were strategically placed.

This was the first quilt I'd hung at my current law firm
and it was a great hit.

I later entered it in the Mid-South Fair
and the Fayette County Cotton Carnival.
It was a ribbon-winner at both events.

It was also one of the Chris-quilted quilts displayed
in the Nolting booth during the 2007 AQS Nashville Expo.

After retiring from public view,
Fozzie's Feet has served us well
as a cheerful topper for our kitchen table.

Elsie's Broken Dishes

My grandmother,

Elsie Race Walton,

pieced this quilt top.

Along the way,

my mother turned the flimsy into a comforter

stuffed with polyester fiberfill batting

and tied with acrylic yarn.

After the quilt moved to my house,

I gently removed all those yarn ties,

unstitched the binding

and discarded the aging batting and muslin back.

The flimsy was gently laundered

before I added a narrow inner border

and a wider floral outer border.

The project was then handed off to Chris ~

but we later decided

it was more than she wanted to deal with.

In the end, Elsie's Broken Dishes was quilted

by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.

She graciously coped with the

extra border fullness

and slightly askew flimsy

to create what I call one of my rescue quilts.

Baptist Fans were the one and only choice for quiliting.

Who knew growing up that my staid and proper

English grandmother

had such a scrappy-colorful inner self.

What a treasure.

March 2007 Journal Quilt

Bits and Pieces of My Past

My journal quilt for March 2007 was created as my class project

for a Joggles online course taught by Sharon Boggon.

Instead of creating a crazy pieced block

(as the syllabus described),

I used one of the journal quilt panels for my background.

The vertical row of buttons came from a sweater

worn by my dad when he was a little boy;

there are random items from the botton boxes of

my husband's grandmother and my mother

[did you know that November 16 is National Button Day?];

plus silk ribbons,

a strip of hand made insertion lace given to me by

one of my host families during a college orchestra

1974 summer tour of Finland;

daisy-shaped lace flowers from a

junior bridesmaid dress worn when I was 13;

plus more well worn buttons, beads, and threads.

I did not include this quotation when I made the quilt,

but added it later to the back:

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile

the moment a single man contemplates it,

bearing within him the image of a cathedral."

(Antoine De Saint-Exupery)

Christmas Quilt

When I attended my very first AQS show in Nashville during August 2006,

I took two classes.

These fabrics were purchased for Scott Murkin's curved piecing session

(we were to bring 9" squares of lights and darks).

I managed two or three blocks during the class,

brought everything back home

only to have the precut squares sit on the shelf.

Sometime in early 2007,

I abandoned the curved piecing effort

and went with half-square triangles.

Layouts were auditioned and a flimsy was born!

Chris added free motion feather work in the light color bands

(some of her first)

and My Christmas Quilt became a reality.

The quilt is visible on the quilt rack year round

but takes is place of honor on the back of the couch

each December.

February 2007 Journal Quilt - Elsie's Butterflies

Hand crocheted butterflies from handkerchiefs made by my grandmother

were gently hand stitched to a remnant of my mother's quilt flimsy.

I added beads to the wings of the butterflies,

then machine quilted the piece.

The quotes were written on fabric

with a Sharpie marker

then fused to the back where another

of Elsie's butterflies 

had been stitched.

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly

but rarely admit the changes it has gone through

to achieve that beauty."

(Maya Angelou)

~ ~ ~

"If there was no change

there would be no butterflies"

(Author unknown)