A quilt from Grandma

This is a quilt made for me by my Grandmother on the Ouradnik side. She sewed 6" squares of fabric from old clothes and then put a wool batt in, tied it with yarn and folded the edges down and sewed them together.

When I washed it for the first and only time the wool clumped up. She had not added a scrim to it. Now decades later this fabric, that was already someones worn out clothing and old when she sewed it, was starting to shred and disintigrate. That is the first picture.

The second picture is after I have spent over 30 hours repairing just the top. And I'm not done yet!

I have:

1. taken out every shredded square,
2. repaired 1/2 the seams,
3. mended many blocks,
4. found more of her old fabric that she had cut into squares, and used them to replace the squares I removed. I didn't actually have enough 6" so I took apart some 9-patch blocks she made and used 4 of the squares together and cut them down to 6".
5. used about 16 yards of sheerweight fusible interfacing to apply on the back of each and every square!
6. re-enforced every seam, every single one!

Since she tied the quilt with thick poly yarn, there are two 1/8th" holes in each block. Since I have quite a bit of fabric squares that she cut years before she died, I have used the fusible interfacing on them and cut them into circles about 1.5" in diam and have turned the edges and I'm sewing those over the holes. There will be a few bigger circles covering any tears in the fabric. When I'm done with that I will attack the backing fabric. Which she bought new, but also has 1/8th" holes all over where the yarn came through. I think I will continue with the circle thing on the back too...

Row by Row Round Robin

The Cave Women have started a round robbin quilt. I haven't made my row. And I might not, I don't know yet. But I did make a strip for Sarahs. Sarah made the red one...all scraps of course! Then Sharon Englund made the blue one and then I made the ugly green one. :-D

The row by row starts out with each quilter making her first row. It can be any width or length and consist of whatever design she wants. In a bag it goes and passed on to the next quilter and they make an equal size row. And then the next quilter and so on. The original quilter gets her bag back with the completed rows ready for her to assemble which ever way she desires.

I don't have pictures of the other ones...but Sharon Englunds is a smaller one with....go ahead and guess....animal prints!

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Tonights trip to the MIA for artistic inspiration ended on a fun note in the exhibits of two artists. Nancy Robinson and her Sin and Guilt paintings; and Sarah Belleau and her Holy Land photographs. Just go to this website yourself to see it.

Better yet, go to the exhibit! It's on until May 31 and it's a free exhibition. Sarah Belleau photographs have images reflect a modern day vision of verses in the Bible. She has a really cool 3d example in the middle of the room. And Nancy Robinson painted self-portraits, and one is "Alone in the City"...with a bunch of pinocchios bestowing flowers on a pretty girl. You can just imagine them saying "I've got something for you baby!" ~creeeeek~ oops, Woody's lying! Her paintings were bright, humorous and invite you to guess at the psychology behind the representation of different items. One of them even belongs to Mimi Holmes, so you know they're fun!

What does this mean?

Last night as I lay in bed talking to God about the fatal situation quilter Joan Skalbeck is enduring, this is what came out of me onto my drawing pad. Normally when I feel compelled to draw without knowing what I want to draw, it ends up in some continuous line figure.
Some people know that I love to draw with crayons; the nascent, simple Crayola crayon. I guess it reflects my style of art that lacks sophistication.
Last night I only wanted a thick felt tip pen. I knew I didn't want to use crayons. It had to be black. And I had to draw circles. Lots of circles. Even as I drew them I was wondering why.
I don't even know Joan that well, except through MCQ. She probably doesn't even know how much I am thinking of her, how much I love to see her vibrant, energenic personality, that overflows and oozes with smiles, laughter, and a positive force. She's one of those people whose presence leaves you happier than you were before.
Why does God threaten to take her? Why don't the evil people on the planet get cancer and the good people live long and healthy? The question is too simple for it's answer.

Cave women who quilt...

Last night was another meeting of the Cave Women quilt group, and as always, a butt load of hilarity!
We now know that Sharon is going to be stuck with us meeting at her house, because we're willing to meet there even when she's not home! She had an emergency dental disaster and had to rush to her super handsome, sweet, funny dentist; but we met at her house anyway.
We just open her door and head to the cave, I didn't even bother yelling "Hello!" to her husband when I let myself in. We even bring some of our own cookies, chocolate and beverages to enjoy in our gayety. Meanwhile Sharon's having some ground up chinese peoples bones put in her mouth and then skin grafts sewn over by the dentist who found the instructions for this technique on the internet that afternoon!
And then don't get Peg started on the subject of dentistry...she wants to go on and on about how painful it is while she offers to show you inside her mouth!
I'm sitting there with my fingers in my ears, rocking back and forth, chanting "Go to your special place, go to your special place..."

READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!
Sharon pulled out her QWASOH quilt piece that she's constructing of a gorgeous Alligator in red sparkly pumps and decides to name her "Betty" after a discussion about the subject at this website:
http://www.bettybeauty.com/
Although Sharon is known for mooning her tie-died underwear in public, nobody confessed this evening if they had designs on their betty's, let alone show them! It doesn't seem to matter if you call it your Vah-jay-jay or burmuda triangle (things get lost?), if you're not happy with the color, you can get a dye job. And let's not even get into 'shape'...let me just say the brazilian is out and mowing the lawn is in.

My thoughts?
Same as the dentist: "Get the hell away from there!"

I read a few pages from Carrie Fishers book "Wishful Drinking", totally hilarious book, showed my latest embroidered dish-towel, Kathy was sewing on binding, Sam stitching clamshells, Wendy...what was Wendy doing? Sarah showed us cute pictures of her 17 yo dog Ruthie who was just put down, and Peg kept on bringing up the dentistry subject. Everyone exchanged their Row-blocks, so next month we'll see more creativity on that front. Everyone but me gave Sarah fatquarters of dog fabric. I forgot to bring some.

To walk in another man's shoes...

I finished listening too American Lion. This picture from an audio/cd on amazon has a different reader, the one I got from the library was read by Richard McGonagle...I like his voice. Some other readers voices distract me from the book.
I enjoy American History, and this book combined not only recorded history but also melded together with personal letters to, from and about Andrew Jackson for a detailed look at the personality of Andrew Jackson and his relationships with dozens of people - family and political.
Things are still the same today as the 1820's: many of the same political issues, and even gossip, mudslinging, and adulterous scandal.

My own question is the same as always, how can any deeply religious person be proactive about slavery? The only answer I can surmise is "Let he who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her".
How could we know if we were born in that day, raised with slaves, depended on their slavery for income on our crops, that we would also not be able to recognise the dichotomy between slavery and a nation's declaration that "...all men are created equal..."?
Bullies and tyrants need love too?
Thankfully people who had sense stood forward and repaired that injustice.

I enjoyed the entire book; a verbal picture painted of a great leader, a man who felt strongly in his beliefs, and applied those beliefs to the best of his abilities in every situation.

In his end he understood equality.

Happy Birthday!

Not to me...to Heike and Jenna!

April 12th

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday Dear Heike and Jennaaaaaaaaa,

Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuu!

Camp Wapo MCQ Quilters Retreat March 2009

Peg LaSota took this picture (so she's not in it). It was such a fantastic retreat; lots of creativity and an abundance of laughter. Warms my heart just thinking about it.

MCQ meetings can be so rushed/hurried because we have so much to put into so little time. The retreat really gives us an opportunity to get to know our fellow quilt artists. They are the most supportive, caring people on the planet.

A pair of wool slippers are done!

I can't believe I'm finally done...they took so long to make! This is made of wool and leather I 'reclaimed' or 'recycled' from thrift shops. I felted the wool, it's atleast 1/4" thick. The leather was someones blue skirt, that I threw in the washer. Inside there's a separate piece of wool I felted and it's 3/8" thick. Warm and yummy!
Hopefully the next pair will be better made and won't take me as long. It's a 'learn as you go' project.

Cat and Mouse

This fuzzy little mouse in knitted socks and a cap on a dishtowel is for Heike. Hopefully she'll get it in the mail before she sees this blog!

This is Licorice:

"Feed me or I'll eat you in your sleep"

Photoshop et al doesn't fix 'green eye'.