Polyester and Procrastination

During holiday parties you sometimes get to know people you see throughout the year a little better. As a way of sharing something about myself, I let these non-quilting acqaintances know I have a blog. I scroll through my photos to show them my cat, a quilt I am working on, or family members. Invariably someone will shreek "Oh, oh that one! Stop scrolling! Oh, that one is so beautiful!"

 And they don't mean a quilt I made, but the polyester double-knit beauty I purchased at a garage sale (this one) or the poufy one I bought my hubby (meant to be a joke, but now I sleep under it) at Goodwill. See it in my previous post.

 My parents have lived in the same house since 1963, and one day a neighbor (a son of the original owner) was having a garage sale. He said his mother made two of the double knit beauties, and what the heck did he need two of them for? Having thought a lot of his sweet mother, and knowing how much work was put into it, I purchased it.

Mrs. Massey made the postage stamp-style quilt top probably in the early 1970s. The country was was just beginning a time of quilting skill revival, and most of us were working in somewhat difficult to find 100% cotton calico prints and thought little of readily available double-knit polyester.

 Most of us were walking around in pants suits made of the stuff and cloth stores were full of it. Our piecing was done by hand, as tradition dictates, and double-knit was very difficult to hand-sew. (See her tiny stitches 2nd photo.)

 This quilt reminds me of just how many different prints and textures of double knit there were. Mrs. Massey was a rebel; using "new" fabrics for a traditional craft. The rest of us were busy being snobs and rejecting polyester. I am so happy she was independent, resourceful and creative. Those qualitites are what I believe quilting to be about.

Apparently this quilt will last forever. It certainly photographs well. I love it, but have to say I am a little jealous of the attention the two polyester quilts get over my own work.

Today I must, must, must get out some holiday decorations. I understand I will have some company Christmas Eve, so it is time to clean, clean, clean and at least decorate a little.

So what kind of food do I like to eat now that my diet is aimed toward the Dr. Fuhrman Eat to Live program?

Sometimes I have spinach, mushrooms and avocado sprinkled with a flax seed mixture,

and sometimes it can be some stir-fried vegetables and the same avocado dish. I am crazy about avocados. You see the pattern by my plate? It is for that denim quilt with the fabric squares that you quilt as you go in a cathedral window type method. I cannot wait to try it.

Oh, I finished that bag I was working on.

 I love it but just cannot seem to put my stuff in it to carry it. The home dec fabric I used has Washington DC landmarks all over it. I fell in love with the fabric the moment I saw it, but I have never been to D.C. It would be like walking around with "Paris" emblazoned on my t-shirt when I've never been there either. 

Then I read the StellaBellaQuilts blog post. Gretchen just got back from D.C., so guess who's getting a wonderful new bag with lots of roomy storage pockets?

Enjoy Gretchen! It is totally meant for you.

Up, Down, All Around

The Hexagon Hip Hop quilt with Brannock & Patek's Audra's Iris Garden  (Moda) is a finished quilt top.

I struggled with the fancy border, so it doesn't exactly match the pattern in Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott, but that's what quilters do: improvise!(I like it well enough for all the pouting I did about my mistakes.) I was having a snit-fit over sewing, unsewing and screwing up when Joey knocked over my "design wall" and ironing board. Inspiration hit me as I was cleaning up the mess: unstitch the ends of the remaining two borders and add more triangle units and recut the corner pieces. Fine!

The board Joey knocked over is a heavy duty ironing board I found at an estate sale. A young man carried it to the car for me and asked "does it work?" Well heck. I never thought an ironing board wouldn't work, but I answered I would find out when I got home. Driving away I thought why wait, so I pulled over into a cul-de-sac, pulled the board out of the car and set it up. Good deal; works fine. Wait. OMG, I can not fold it back up! I jiggled, felt around, turned it over, banged on it; I was about to have a panic attack thinking I would just have to leave it there in the middle of the cul-de-sac when whomp! Down it went, and I didn't even know what I'd done. (How freaking embarrassing.)

Here's Joey down on the floor on the quilt top seeing if I resolved the problems I was having; it passed his inspection.

Joey went up on the top shelf to snooze on the fusible stuff I need to cut for the bag.

Looks peaceful. I hate to wake him up and move him.

'Cause now he is down on my cutting table thinking he'll give a hand at cutting out. Some help he is, too. I had to put him out in the hall and close the door so I could work.

While I was working and moving things around in the sewing room, I discovered one of my Goodwill purchases will make a wonderful back to my Bento Box quilt. (I love when that happens!)

I got all the outer and inner parts of the bag cut when I noticed it was 2:45 a.m. I lose track of time when I play in my sewing room.

Joe knew it was time to go to bed. I found him down on the floor in the cat crate all curled up on an old quilt. (The cat crate was out because I took Kitten in to the vet to have her eye looked at; I was not sure if it was infected or not, but all is well. I certainly don't want to take chances with the only eye she has!)

Hexagon Hip Hop

 We are having beautiful weather here in Atlanta, so I have been able to sew outside on my patio. I am working on Hexagon Hip Hop from the Lintott's book.

Audra's Iris Garden by Brannock & Patek (Moda) has worked out quite well. I love the colors! 

Just so you know, squaring up is my least favorite activity, but being outside makes it endurable. 

 Since he is recovering from hernia surgery, my husband has been hanging around watching me sew. Monday night he told me this is his favorite of the quilts he's seen me make. I queried why, and his reply was that it was poufier than my other ones. He said "real quilts are poufy." I thought for a moment about what the heck he meant, since I was doing what I always do.

What he was looking at was the sewn strips that had not yet been pressed. Hah! I bet he was disappointed to find I managed to ruin this one by flattening it out too.

Smashed it flat as a pancake!

Dear me; all the pouf is gone!

That cannot be a quilt now.

Can it?

Because the pouf is gone.

So I ran back to the Goodwill store to buy that poufy quilt I'd seen the day before.

Here you go honey.

 The pouf that lasts forever.

100% 

will-never-fade

1970's

era

 vintage

double-knit

 polyester.

 My favorite block has a printed background.

How about that? A REAL quilt.

Okay, now back to my stuff.

I am auditioning the checkery brushed cotton for the border strips. Oh wait, I have to press the pouf out of the pieced border first. I won't have any poly-pouf looking mess in my quilts. That would make you-know-who happy. No sir; not happening. 

And June, the next photo is for you. Sweet baby Kitten has been neglected on the blog since Joseph James moved in.

But she is here, and she got to be outdoors too; soaking up some sun and breathing in some fresh air.

Thanks be to God for all the blessings great and small (poufy and not) in my life.

Sunday Night Quickie

 I don't remember putting this "Bento Box" quilt on the blog. If I did, forgive me.  I worked on it while I was spending time in Mom's (Linda Brannock's) studio last month.

 I took the course from Jean Ann Wright at the Georgia Quilt Show. It was fun to select border fabrics from Mom's stash. (She has ever so much to choose from.)

I liked working on it enough to consider making a second one.

 We got a new Hancock's fabric store by my house. I had to go look around to see what they had. I found some reproduction Victoria and Albert fabric by David Textiles. 

The "David" fabric is not the quality I prefer, but the blues (below) are from Blue Hill. La-Te-Da! I love the hand; soft yet dense and smooth.

The previous two quilt tops complete, I found myself able to start the top I told Mom I was going to make two or three months ago. I wanted to work with Audra's Iris Garden by Brannock and Patek.

I started cutting. I just love these flowers. I noticed I have "Audra's" but I also have "Awakening." I didn't realize I have mixed two lines "Together." Ha. That was clever, right?

If you didn't get it, don't worry over it. Pretty lame. I want to make "Hexagon Hip Hop" from the pretty iris fabric.

 I've done the hexies by hand before, but these are large and are constructed from half-hexagons.

The instructions have been easy to follow, but I had to give up cutting because someone got in my way.

I won't say who, but I think you can figure it out.

Triangle trial

I have been getting some help with my Triangle project. This project is from a workshop took from Holice Turnbow at the Georgia Quilt Show. I signed up for the class last minute, so I was glad to get a kit.

 Joey wants me to hurry up; I think he wants his exercise board a.k.a. design wall back so he can climb on it. I keep the doors of that room closed when I have a project on it so he doesn't tear it down.

I'm auditioning that blue piece as a border, but hubby thinks it needs mustard yellow for the border. I don't usually listen to a thing he says, but he may have a point on this one.

Meanwhile I'll see if I can avoid sewing my little helper's paw into the quilt.

He really is trying to help.

He needs to supervise; he just does. He makes the Triangles a Trial to finish.

I think that's what I'll call this quilt when it's done. Triangle Trial. I'll have to keep this quilt, since it's Joe's favorite.

A Day of Cats

My Friday morning started out with Joey and his antics.

Batting my UGA shaker from the top of the computer armoire, and knocking it down, of course.

 He is such a goofball, and he's always getting into stuff.

 I got stuff done at home, headed to the gym for a swim, then stopped at the grocery store. I was driving out of the parking lot when a lovely long-haired grey cat ran along side the curb.  There were no cars behind me, so I put it in park, exited the car and tried to find the grey kitty who remininded me of Joey. I could not locate him, so I got back into my car, another car pulled up behind me, and, before I could turn my engine on, started honking. Really!? Those idiots could not give me a second to crank my engine? (insert regrettable hand gesture here, you can get shot for stuff like that, I DO NOT endorse road rage and urge caution and cheek turning and "just let it pass")

I circled the block, re-entered the parking lot and parked so I could look more thoroughly. While I was looking, a woman approached me to ask if I'd seen the kittens. Turns out she feeds the feral cats in the area, traps them and gets them fixed. We didn't see any of the cats while I was there. She told me many of the fancy-dancy townhomes behind the grocery store had been foreclosed and the people just left their animals when they moved out.  She wouldn't take a monetary donation from me, but I managed to find her in the store and pay for her cat food purchases (along with a gift card for next time).

Surprising Mom on her birthday.

Here is one of Mom's (Linda Brannock) quilts. 

When I got to Kansas City last weekend Mom and Dad were not expecting me. I went to surprise Mom for her birthday.  I found her some lovely roses.

We had one problem. The bed I usually sleep in was loaded, and I mean loaded, with quilts. You know how you like to have them out to lay flat and relieve the fold lines? There were so many we just couldn't fold them all up, so I just pushed a few over and slept on one side of the bed on top of all the quilts and under one of them. 

The Great White Pumpkin

More later; let the work week begin!

What snake quilt?

On occasion, when we are chatting about quilts, Mom will ask me if I know what happened to Adam's Snake Quilt. She will remind me it is one of the favorite quilts she ever made, and it is on the back of her book Miss Jump's Favorites (click the link and you can see more projects from the book on the Homespun Peddler's website).

 It is an amazing quilt. 

I have always been reluctant to ask Adam what became of the quilt, so I would remind Mom that Adam has moved numerous times in Atlanta and in Nashville, and that he even left my Stearns & Foster mattress at one of the addresses. I really had no idea what became of her quilt. 

Adam and Mary Elizabeth are in the process of moving back into Atlanta, so after they left with a load of household goods yesterday I started cleaning up.

I was getting some fresh linens out of the hall closet when I spied some crazy fabric up on the top shelf.

Well I'll be darned!

 Adam has kept the quilt quite safe all these years. It is wonderful to know he loves it and it is safe.  

I can hardly wait for Mom to read my blog today.