My Life is a Quilt Retreat!

Blog 8

I am behind in Blogging so I've asked some friends to "Guest Blog" for me while I pack up my entire house to move.  And of course, I can count on my friends to bail me out as they always do when I ask, I have the best friends in the whole world!

Here's Paula T...

What to say... Hmm, my big chance to get up on a soap box.  My soap box would be a very pretty quilted box!!  I always wonder why I want so badly to go on a quilt retreat - my life is a quilt retreat (aaaah --maybe I could have my own blog "my life is a quilt retreat").  I quilt something everyday.  Even if it's just a piece of fabric that I "doodle quilt" on.  That my friends is how you get the title "quilter"! Practice!! And when you get tired of that, well -- practice some more!  When I used to teach free motion quilting, my parting words: "practice, practice & practice!" And just quilt something!  If you want to, not every one wants to quilt their own completed tops.  But if you do, some time will need to be invested.  That being said, there are plenty of things to do with fabric!!

Now (excuse me, stepping up on the quilted box -- what the heck is a soap box any who?)  I was told about Mark Lipinski's blog (gee, thanks judy!)

         http://www.slowstitching.com/

He has a new webinar called "The Slow Stitch Movement". He talks about making our legacy quilt, spending time in the process and enjoying the journey of quilting.  He has some great ideas about the hobby we all love.  It's not always about the "quick and easy" quilts  or the tons of fabric pushing us out of our sewing room or ahem, costing some of us mega bucks to move to towns with quirky names!! (Rhymes with "whim"!) His words and ideas have made me stop and think about how much I love this hobby and all that it brings to my life.  Many fabulous friends that are fun to be with and great to go on quilt retreats with -- that's why I love to plan, think about and go on quilt retreats, even if "my life is a quilt retreat"!

Judy gave me some fabric that is not going in the moving van.  She wanted my friends, Donna & Keri, to take what we love and donate the rest to my Mom's friend Martha and now my friend.  Martha doesn't sew but she and her sisters cut, sort and count the squares they get out of any piece of fabric I take to them!  Martha then gives the squares (all counted and sorted!) to the Senior Gleaners in their area (northern California).  The ladies at the "Gleaners" make quilts, wheel chair bags and pillows.  Martha and her sisters are always so happy to see me back up the car in front of her house and start unloading!  They make use of every single scrap!  I'll be going to see my friend, Babs, who lives in Rocklin now, and we will make a trip over with "bags for Martha".  Thank you Judy!

Enjoy your quilting journey!
Paula T

I'm gonna post some quilt photos

BLOG 9

I've been a gutter ball as far as blogging goes, NO POINTS for me!  And Sunday I have to take my computer down for who knows how long while we hit the road on the way to the Olympic Peninsula, just across the border from Canada! What to do??? Aha, I'm going to post photos of some of my quilts so you can see what kind of quilter I am.

Starting with my latest quilt first, I call it Coco the road bump, since it's a fusible web applique of who else? Coco, my Daughter-in-laws Corgi.  My Daughter-in-law just turned 50, oops did I say that out loud? So what better gift than a quilt of the dog she is CRAZY about.  Here he is, Coco laying on his back ready for a belly rub.

The next quilt is COOP HOUSE which has a long story behind it and I will go into it one day (today's not the day).  It is a retired McKenna Ryan pattern, altered by me, a combination of piecing and fusible applique. 

That's it for me today, I promise more pictures as the week flies by in a flash.

 

Here's Diana.............

Blog 7

I am packing my fabrics so I asked my incredibly talented friend Diana Ruby to "Guest Blog" for me.  I really think she should have her own blog - she has the best stories and knows how to make me laugh out loud!

Her guest blog however, made me cry. She is generous, down to earth and always giving of herself to others, not to mention, a fabulous quilter!

As they used to say on the old TV shows like Ed Sullivan, "and without further ado" (what's ado?) "Here's Diana..."

When Judy invited me to be a "guest blogger", I jumped at the chance. Thank you Judy!

I must admit that when Judy first told me that she was moving, I cried a little bit.  I have not been a very good participant in what we generally call "change". Change has often been something that has happened to me, rather than what I have actively chosen. I often associate "change" with "loss".  Mostly I really, truly hate change. Then it occurred to me that without change, I would not have met my friend Judy Ramos and many of the other wonderful, creative, generous, affirming, talented, hardworking people who have come into my life in the past few years.

It was because of significant (mostly our of my control) circumstances that I even began to quilt. I sewed through sadness and disappointment, and change.  And in the process of piecing my life back together, I made friends and discovered my life's work.  I love to quilt. I'll probably never win ribbons, or be invited to do a trunk show, or "wow" people with my spectacular quilts. But that's ok with me.  I'm me. We can't all be "Judys".

I'm me (and the quilter I am) partly because of the love and support and friendship and good tips I have received from Judy Ramos. I love sewing with Judy. She sings, is happy and encouraging, and funny. She is good at what she does. When Judy leaves, I'm going to miss sewing with her. And then I realize that I'm not going to be left with a Judy sized hole in my heart - I'm going to be left with a Judy sized impression on my hear. And I am grateful!

I met Judy, and my life is richer for it. Change has stretched me and made me grow. Maybe it's not a bad thing after all!

Traveling mercies, Judy. Enjoy the changes this move is bringing!

I'm going to go quilt now.

Diana

$.50 cents a pound

Blog 6

You heard we sold the house. We move on July 21st.  OK, so next thing, how are we going to move all this stuff over 700 miles?  We are not young. Our days of U-Hauls are over. However, I still can U-Pack. We have estimates from those moving companys that put your stuff on their truck, drive it to your new home and take your stuff off the truck. Well guess what!? They charge by the pound. YEP, almost 50 cents a pound. With road taxes and insurance you really need to buy, it's about 50 cents a pound.  Yowza!

OK, so look at how neat my storage is in my sewing room (now):

My incredibly neat fabric

(the rest takes up one bay of the garage)

That does not show my stash we moved to the garage so the potential buyers wouldn't see it when they looked at the house. Large tub after tub of wonderful fabrics! We wouldn't want the buyers knowing a fabric hoarder AKA "Quilter" lived here, would we? Big question now, how much does that fabric weigh? Have you ever wondered? Well I'm going to weigh some and then sit down with a big glass of something, the something in my glass depends on how much fabric weighs.  Here goes...

20 yards = 5 pounds

OK, Alright, deep breathing.  I better double check.  I checked the know-it-all in my house, Google!  Type in "how much does quilting fabric weigh?"  I found on Ebay the following for 1 yard cuts, (who knew?):

1. Washed Hoffman fabric = 4.3 oz
2. Unwashed Alexander Henry = 5.2 oz
3. Unwashed Hoffman batik = 4.7 oz 

Hmmmm.  I used unwashed Free Spirit fabric.  Lets see, that's 20 divided by 5, no that's not right.  This is where it gets difficult. Where the rubber meets the road.  MATH! 

 

OK we can do this. 16 oz to the pound means I have a total of  WHERE IS THE CALCULATOR ON MY PHONE???  5 X 16 = 80  so 20 yards = 80 ounces.  If I divide ounces by yards I get 4 ounces. So I'm saying one yard = 4 oz. plus or minus.  The average of the Ebay yards is 4.7 oz. Maybe their scale is a little more refined? The point being every 20 yards of fabric I have in my stash is going to weigh approximately 5 pounds or more and cost me $2.50 or more to move. That's just wrong. The math is right but the cost to move fabric is just wrong.

We sold the house - OH NO!

Day/Blog 5

Yesterday morning I got a call from our Realtor Fred asking if I'd got the email. Thinking it was an email from the day before, I said "yes".  He said "so what did you think of the offer?"  I said "what offer?"  Now my heart started beating a little faster thinking that I hadn't seen the email he was talking about.  I was on the computer on Face Book so I quickly switched to email to see what he was talking about.  YES!!! we had an offer on the house and it was pretty good, not perfect, but good.  By afternoon we had submitted a counter offer and by the evening, they accepted.  We sold the house! We sold the house! Now we could concentrate on our new house in Washington and move on with the next chapter of our life. We had margaritas to celebrate and contemplate our exciting future. Sweet!

We called our daughters, we sent friends emails and text messages, it was so exciting, but why did I feel apprehensive? It's a good thing, right?

In the big scope of things, yes it is what we want, what we've worked hard for and what we expected to happen.  But it happened so fast, we sold the house in 13 days.  AND, it is a 30 day escrow so we have to be packed and out in 30, no strike that, 29 days now.  PACKING! OH NO!  I've told you about my quilting stash but I want to make sure you understand.  The picture is one load of many that we moved into the garage. One of many!

I don't even want to tell you how many.

The quilting stash was one issue on my mind last night but the bigger issue is how hard it is going to be to leave my friends.  No amount of margaritas would make that issue go away, if anything it made it worst.  Alcohol tends to bring out my WOO HOO! side as well as my BOO HOO side. Telling friends we had sold the house made the move real.  Leaving my friends, quilt groups & guilds.  How will I handle this? After sad text messages being sent back and forth I remembered dinner, yes, dinner.  I told my friends what I remembered. We had bought Chinese food take out for dinner.  With our Chinese food we only got ONE fortune cookie so we broke it open like a wishbone and it said "Every exit is an entrance to new experiences".  With that I bid my friends goodnight.

All things Bernina

Day 4

We went to Sacramento, CA yesterday to pick up my Little Bernina from Meissner's Sewing Center. I Love, Love, Love, my Berninas!

Meissners of Sacramento

The BIG needle

 It is the store right off Interstate 80 with the BIG sewing machine needle in the sky. Just drive to the needle!

They have the very best Bernina Technician, his name is Matt.  That's what I think and I'm willing to drive 2 hours to Sacramento and another 2 hours back home just to have him take care of my Bernina sewing machine.

When you walk in...there it is...all things Bernina!

All things Bernina

Her name was Lola, She was a showgirl

DAY 3

How do you move a cat from Nevada to Washington?  Yep, we have a cat and a dog and we are moving. Our Dog is really no problem, she loves to travel in the car and is a good sport about long trips.  However, our cat, Lola, hates the car. She hates to be held. We don't know why. We rescued her from the shelter so we don't know anything about her history.  We named her LOLA! That alone should tell you a lot about her. Remember the song "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets" from "Damn Yankees"? And "Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl" from the song "Copacabana"?

We've never owned a cat before in 40 years of marriage.  We don't know how to travel with her. I suppose we'll ask the vet.  This moving thing just keeps getting better and better, ugh!


If you can't see the video, my apologies.  It is linked to you tube and I can see it on my PC but not on my I phone.  I'm still learning this Blogging thing so please bear with me.