What's making me happy today is that today is my birthday! Today's Friday Felicities post goes out to my parents.
I credit my Mom and Dad for the fact that I am one of those people who loooooves their birthday. In a family with five children, the opportunities for each of us to be celebrated individually were limited, but our birthday was certainly one of those times.
In my family, your birthday day was all about you, beginning with breakfast, when the Birthday Celebrant's place was set with Mom's "good" china and Waterford crystal.
There was also a Kellogg's Fun Pak awaiting the Birthday Girl/Boy's first choice of "cold" cereal - a big treat since we ate hot cereal every week day. I wasn't (and still am not) a fan of the super-sugary cereals, so my foks always got me the non-sugary version of the Fun Pak that included Rice Krispies and Special K.
Since finding out about this tradition, my lovely friend Anne has provided me with a Snak Pak on each of my birthdays since we've met, which is going on 17 years.
We were invited to not only produce a Birthday List of the gifts we wanted, but we got to choose the menu for our birthday meal. We never got all those presents, obviously, but we did always get our special meal. Depending on the request, the whole family got to enjoy the meal choice (pork chops and scalloped potatoes, my menu for at least 5 years running), or the Birthday Celebrant got their own special meal (my brothers often chose steak). I always had pumpkin pie as my dessert.
Over dinner, my Mom would recount the story of the day we were born ("X years ago today...."), and the highlights for each person were always the same (mine involved a 95-year-old lady cab driver; my brother's, Mom's erroneous assumption that labour pains were indigestion from the hot dog she ate that day).
So there you have it - the story of why I love my birthday and why I am happy (ha! pun intended) today.
Have a great weekend, (even if yours isn't going to include birthday cake like mine is).
Hello, friends! I'm featured today over at Amy's Creative Side - Amy is the Mama of Bloggers' Quilt Festival (2011 Fall Festival starts tomorrow!) and someone lovely suggested me as a Featured Blogger.
I am so very happy that I had the opportunity to attend a talk given by three Gee's Bend Quilters and Matt Arnett. Matt and his dad are art historians and are credited with "discovering" the quilts of Gee's Bend.
Matt described some of the history of Gee's Bend, the extreme poverty of that former slave trading post (though official records confirming that are unsurprisingly unavailable), and the first exhibits. He then introduced the quilters, Revil Mosley, China Pettway and Louisiana Bendolph, and they each spoke in turn. Before they spoke, though, China and Revil sang a beautiful gospel/spiritual song and indeed there was a lot more song throughout the evening.
Each woman represented a generation, and each shared stories of her past, all of which included very rough times, hunger, cold, racism, and faith. The deep and abiding faith, particularly of Revil and China was front and centre and extremely genuine. That was definitely a memorable part of the talk.
There were photos of quilts, and some photos of the Gee's Bend community. There were also many stories and photos of the first Gee's Bend exhibit.
The audience was able to ask questions, and there was a great question about how these women's husbands and sons felt about them leaving Gee's Bend for the tours and these lectures. The response was interesting - that the support of husbands definitely ranged from "not at all" to "extremely" and Matt made an extremely interesting point about how the financial gain from the sale of their quilts has caused some imbalance in some households where one quilt might sell for more than that quilter's husband makes in a year.
China told a story of her brother making her a pair of shoes from a pasteboard box, and her family using quilts to insulate the walls against the winter cold. Revil took up the microphone right after that and commented that at least the windows in China's house had windowpanes - her family home didn't!
Louisiana, who was born in 1960, experienced an effectively segregated school system insofar as that part of Alabama didn't have desegregated schools until the 1970s - well after Brown vs. The Board of Education had changed the law. Incredible.
Even after all that's changed in Gee's Bend since the world discovered it just over 10 years ago, the quiltmakers there continue to make quilts to be used, to keep their families warm. The art of these quilts persists but it is absolutely inseparable from their utility. When someone asked a question about design decisions, Matt related a story about how it took him a long time to really get the quilters to acknowledge that they were producing art and not "just" quilts for use - finally one quilter answered his question about why she didn't just use one piece of orange in that one spot but rather cut it up and put it in various places and she responded something like, "Well, I wanted it to look good!"
The talk was inspiring and I had tears in my eyes more than once. I was completely star struck and could barely croak out a "thank you" when I went to the table to meet the quilters. I do hope this video gives you a little taste of the personality of these awesome women (l-r as the video begins) China, Revil and Louisiana.
Go here to learn more about these fabulous quilts and quilters - even a google search of "quilts of Gee's Bend" comes up with so much great stuff!
Today's felicity is that I will be attending a lecture this evening by some quilters of Gee's Bend. I am so excited. Here are some images of Gee's Bend quilts to take you into the weekend. Enjoy!
Had a productive week! Let's recap my massive and scary to-do list, concentrating on those things with October due dates (I'll worry about November's stuff next week):
AM/PM pre-school quilts: The tops were blogged here, and since then I've been to the class, had the kids put their name on a leaf, and on a strip of fabric for the label. Very good progress!
Mom's placemats: Only two of six are pieced. Strips pieced and segments cut for another 2. I'm okay with that because now that I showed them to the preschool classes, they're a December project.
Hallowe'en costume: Progress! I plan to add some "wings" along the arms. But oh my goodness. That fun fur? Sheds. A LOT. Amy warned me but I'd already bought the fabric. Ugh. The stuff is in my nose, on my carpet and all over my cutting mat.
Butterick P448
Cute story: we've been reading quite a bit about penguins lately, and when I was chatting with The Child about the costume, she announced she wanted it to include "an egg in my brood patch." On the off chance you haven't been studying penguins lately like we have, it's a pocket of sorts where an Emperor Penguin keeps its egg warm, just above its feet. I told her the costume didn't include a brood patch and then - get this - she brightly suggested that she wanted an egg stuck to her foot. As you do when you are a penguin. Obviously. Hilarious. Of course I said okay to that. I now have to make an egg-shaped something to attach to the bottom of one leg of this costume.
I felt great all day at the retreat and got a ton of stuff accomplished. On previous retreats, I felt really burned out by around 8:00pm. Yesterday, I made a conscious effort not to drink too much coffee, and - ironically - it worked!
First up, Cracker SnapsScraps for Angela, who had the kick-off month in my one and only bee for this year: Stash Trad. I pulled a typical Felicity and made a cutting error when I was preparing the pieces to take to the retreat the night before. Luckily, I had brought the extra triangles, but it meant that I had to repeat a fabric, which I hadn't wanted to do. And during construction, I of course managed to place some strips going in the wrong direction, even with a photo to guide me. Ugh. Luckily, I only had to pick out two seams. Could've been worse:
The tutorial to make this block is here if you're interested
Next, I turned my attention to the preschool quilts, and added some flowers to the tree quilts at my daughter's insistence. The news that I was only planning to put flowers on the Kindergarten quilt was not well-received to put it mildly! No photos yet...still in progress.
To help show the children the stages of a quilt's construction, I will bring a new WIP with me to show them: some placemats I'm making my Mom for Christmas. One's pieced:
...and one's quilted.
Speaking of quilting, check out what ELSE I got up to:
First feathers!
Feathers, plus!
My lovely fellow VMQG member Janet does exquisite feathers in her quilting (among other exquisite designs - please check out her blog and Flickr!), and I asked her to give me a lesson while we were on retreat together. She gave me a few pointers, a couple of quilt sandwiches and I got to work. I have conquered my feather insecurity! I know they're not perfect, but I was so so pleased with my progress in such a short time that I'm completely determined to keep practicing so I can get better. Thank you, Janet!
Hooray for lovely day retreats, and my lovely husband, who wrangled The Child all day while I was quilting away.
What's making me happy today is...something that doesn't start with F! Amazing!
Today's felicity is that I will be going on a quilt retreat tomorrow! I'll be sewing my little brains out from 9 am until 10 pm at a gorgeous locale just 45 minutes from the city, together with fellow members of the VMQG *and* FVMQG. Sqeeeeeee! I am very, very excited!
Have you ever been on a quilt retreat? They're usually weekend-long things, and you stay at a hotel or a B&B or a church-affiliated retreat centre. This concept of Krista's is very cool in that you don't have to commit to a full weekend OR stay overnight, which is especially helpful to those of us with smaller kiddos.
A retreat is a chance to work on whatever you want uninterrupted except by chatting, checking out others' work, chatting, eating (someone else cooks!) etc. etc. - just you and your sewing machine. In other words, quilter-style bliss. If you ever have the opportunity to go on a retreat, TAKE IT. You won't regret it.
This quilt was a long time in the making! I joined the Big Fat Dresden Quilt Along over at Lily's Quilts back in March (gah!), got the top done in relatively good time. Then I got distracted by other things (ooh, shiny!), basted it, and then it stalled again.
I began to feel like I was drowning in WIPs, yet I was (happily) starting yet more projects, and it was stressing me out. Plus I didn't know how I wanted to quilt it. More stress. This hobby isn't supposed to be a source of stress!
So I just went ahead and finished it. Of course, it took like two evenings to quilt. Isn't that always the way? We think a project or task is going to be yooooooge and it isn't.
Three cheers for Wonder Wheel!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
The Child "helping" with the photo shoot.
Details:
Size: about 35" square Pattern:Dresden Quilt Along, Lily's Quilts Quilting: straight line with walking foot using 28 wt dark brown Aurifil thread. Fabric: mostly Wonderland by MoMo for Moda, with a couple of extra prints thrown in to round it out. The solids are Robert Kaufman Quilters Linen in (I think) Chocolate for the centre circle and around the Dresden Wheel, and Kona Coffee for the borders and binding.
I still adore Wonderland, and I've got some more to play with (but maybe not til the new year, says the woman with a massive To Do list). In any case, this one's staying with us!
Linking up everywhere I can again - {Sew} Modern Mondays (on the 17th), Manic Mondays, Fabric Tuesday (links all over there on my sidebar), and a new linky party over at pieceful life for little quilts on Mondays, the works!
I am in full pre-school quilt mode now. I have three quilts to make - one for each of the morning and afternoon preschool classes, and one for the Kindergartners (the "Lunch Bunch" because they are at school all day). In my old age, I am actually beginning to learn NOT to bite off more than I can chew. That ripping sound you heard was the tear in the space-time continuum.
The quilts need to be completely done for the mid-December fundraiser, so I scaled back the design as well as the level of involvement from the kids, and here's what the Lunch Bunch quilt is going to look like:
I sew better than I draw, obviously!
When I go to the class, I'll have the quilt tops nearly done, so there will be some up front work, but I'd rather get it done early (do I have to turn in my Last Minute Club membership card?). Then when I'm in the class, the kids can choose a (pre-cut? we'll see) critter to represent them, and write their name on it with fabric markers.
I LOVE the fabric-pulling part of planning a quilt, don't you? I pulled these to start:
Greens for the stems and leaves, and the bottom row for the flowers and critters. The background is a cool word fabric I found in my stash (these quilts will be 100% stash quilts - yay me!) - can you see the alphabets on it? I thought that was a good thematic choice especially since it looks like the sky. I might still use that yellow on the far left of the bottom stack for a happy sun in the top corner. Depends how the mood moves me.
Other projects on the go:
October
AM/PM pre-school quilts: fabric pull imminent. I want all three quilt tops ready to go by the time I visit the class on October 17th.
Mom's placemats. I'll be using them to show the preschool kids how a quilt is made so the 6 of them need to be in varying stages of completion. October 17th.
Hallowe'en costume: The Child wants to be "a bird" - specifically, a penguin chick. Yes, chick. I talked her up to an actual penguin. Due October 31st.
Stash Trad Bee: October is the first month! I pulled fabrics (fun!) for Angela's gigantic Cracker Scraps (I keep wanting to call it Cracker Snaps?) block. In this bee, we sew from our stash, which saves a lot on postage. I like it! Must be in the mail by October 31st.
Commission Quilt (family tree): will use the same design that I use for the AM/PM quilts (SMRT, that's me!). Due December 7th.
All 3 Preschool quilts 100% done by December 15th.
Placemats for my Mom. December 15th.
Memory Quilt for friend's daughter. Would like to get this done by Christmas. Might be too ambitious.
That seems like a lot, I know, but I have two (count 'em) TWO quilt retreats between now and then, one of which is 4 glorious days long. I'm feeling good about my chances.
I'm pretty sure I'm not alone when I say that when someone does something nice for me, my immediate reaction is to want to thank them with a quilt. I don't always follow through, mind you, but the thought nearly always occurs to me.
My friend Cindy bestowed a random act of kindness on me not too long ago - I made a cheeky comment about some long-forgotten (and therefore out of print) fabric she had unearthed in one of the fabric hiding storage places in her home. Along the lines of "I'd be happy to take care of that Layer Cake for you har dee har har." And wouldn't you know, a package arrived on my doorstep not long thereafter containing the LC. I was so blown away by her thoughtfulness and kindness, I knew I would HAVE to thank her with a quilt.
It took me a little while, but the idea for the design finally came to me.
I started with this:
and created this:
I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out. Quilting was - as always - a stumper, but I took my cue from what I did with my Kona Solids Challenge quilt, and quilted the image of a sun within the words. This is the "secret project" on which I used the Aurifil 12/2 wool thread. It's a bit fuzzy but I loved what the pale yellow brings to the quilt.
The sun was quilted with my walking foot; I just wiggled the quilt to make the wavy sun rays. The circles in the border were done free-motion using Aurifil 50/2 thread in a pale cream.
I kept this quilt's back completely plain, except for the label.
Cindy received this today, so now I can blog about it! I think she likes it, don't you? Actually, I'm not sure who's more excited for her to have received it, me or Cindy!
Never, ever doubt that the friends you meet in the online quilting community aren't "real" - they very much are.
I'll link up to {Sew} Modern Monday and Manic Mondays this week! And maybe even Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday too! Plus, it's Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts, and Mini Quilt Monday at Fresh Lemons! This quilt is gonna be making the rounds, people!
