Yes We Need A Little Christmas - right this very minute!

That right! It's December. The time we celebrate the Lord's birth.

I'm usually not one to rush the season, I really like Thanksgiving and actually bemoan that they start Christmas music on or before Thanksgiving. But the day after, well, that's another tune!

Funny, I woke up singing "and we need a little Christmas" and that's the first song I heard when I finally did turn on the radio station the day after Thanksgiving (the same station that began playing Christmas music ON Thanksgiving - I boycotted them that day because I refuse to rush my Thanksgiving). Well, now that's its officially December I'm ready to begin the festivities!

Time to pull the boxes down from the attic and decorate!!

I started with the easiest room first - add a little festivities to the bathroom with a quilted table runner and a couple of my painted treasures from days gone by. Did I mention that I used to tole paint? Mid 80's to early 90's that was my hobby and my business, Sonshine Creations - perhaps you heard of me (yeah right!). My husband cut out the wooden items and I painted them. We even sold some items in Gatlinburg Tennessee back in the day before the imported crafts took over.. I don't have too many of my projects, most were given away, but I held on to the Christmas ones...oh the memories associated with Christmas!

The quilted table runner was made before I owned my own longarm - it was done on a rented machine. I call that my "tuition" into learning the longarm. Hate to think of what it cost me back then to rent by the hour -- oh well, just one more cause to rejoice that I have my own machine now! Just reminds me that God is the giver of good things!

Since the bathroom is shared by the two fellows in my life I decided not to do too much more, not everyone gets as enthusiastic about the decorations as I do (grin). Besides we all love the sea shells so its hard to move them out. There's stories behind the sea shells too, but I'll save those for another time since they don't have anything to do with Christmas.

Added a few items around the living room to make it bright - the teddy bear with the red pants was made by one of my great aunts, Aunt Effie. It was probably made around the time I was in high school as I have another one she gave me in my school colors. We won't mention that I've been out of high school 30 years this year (grin). My mom brought the teddy to me when she came to visit for Thanksgiving. I think he looks great mingled in with the Christmas decorations don't you?

By the way, Aunt Effie was the one who taught me how to embroidery and helped me a lot with my sewing. She was always making neat things for her church bazaar. I loved her crafts. If you look really close you can see on the bottom of the wall shelf a little red cloth clown. She made that for me when I was a child. I have a few other treasures from Aunt Effie, included a couple of her beautiful quilts. She was quite a lady! And I loved her too, not just her crafts.

I have also put out a few things in the kitchen in the way of decorations and preparation for my open house this weekend - but things aren't cleaned up enough to take photos (grin). My tree is up but doesn't have the ornaments on it yet - later tonight I'm hoping! So there will be photos and more stories to come in another post. After all, why rush the season!

What I have done is finished up a project that has been in the works for three Christmases. Well, it's not really finished yet, but finished enough....

See I have this place in my living room where I've hung a good size quilt that matched my curtains - problem is, I've changed curtains (grin) Yep! This weekend while my mom was here she helped me finish up my "new" curtains that have been in the works since summer (before Ike). Well, the wall quilt doesn't match these curtains -- I went from blue to gold tones...but there's a wall quilt in the works to replace this that DOES match the curtains, alas, it's still not finished -- it's my border quilt from my class this summer with Winnie Fleming...it needs two more borders and to be quilted (I've run out of Sundays - the rest of the year is spoken for)...so in the meantime I really have come to dislike the blue quilt on the wall...and with open house coming up....well, you see my predicament don't you?

And since I piece for myself on Sundays......and yesterday was Sunday....

Yep, you guessed it. I pulled out a Christmas quilt that I planned three years ago to take the place of the blue quilt each year around this time...problem is...it was still in blocks and needed 14 more 8 inch blocks to be pieced....add to this that my quarter inch isn't the same since I now have a different machine that the one I originally used....oh me...it's not the best pieced quilt in the world, but the fabrics do hold precious memories -- leftovers from the two other Christmas quilts I've managed to piece AND quilt through the years...well, I just had to finish it and cover up that blue quilt....

As I said, it's not really finished, it is suppose to have a top and bottom border but I'm hanging it up anyway! (it's pinned to the bluje quilt) Here's the cover from the book "Christmas Heart Light" by Susie M. Robbins, Peddlars of Danville. I purchased it at the Houston Festival 2006. You can see how the pieced border is suppose to look. I changed up the blocks, but that's what makes it uniquely mine right? Maybe by next year it will be finished and quilted.

In the meantime, it's time to go warm up some Thanksgiving leftovers -- hubby smoked a brisket that we have been enjoying all weekend (true confession, I did call out for a Domino's Pizza for lunch today) and I think this will be the final meal of "mustgoes." Perphaps we can get the empty boxes back in the attic and things straighten up to our new normal after dinner.

I think we've worn out the puppy...

Quilter's Block

Wow, haven't had this happen in awhile. I have no idea what I want to do on this quilt. Funny, all this time I thought it was emotions that have kept me from quilting my "Starry Starry Night" but I think it's really because I just didn't know what to do with it! Writer's Block meet Quilter's Block -- you are kissing cousins.

It's really a "nothing" sort of quilt. Oh I do think it's pretty, but not really anything special. Just memories, and I realize that in itself makes it special...but from a quilting view point there's nothing special about this quilt.

I did get it loaded last night - oh, notice that the border has changed since my original photo taken December 2003 I posted yesterday...so somewhere in the past year or so I decided to redo the borders. That in itself was some positive progress in working through the emotions of this quilt. I made small strips out of the rectangles I took off then joined them together for a scrappy narrow border. I still have more leftovers, can't decide if they will be a scrappy binding or what...but that's a decision to be made later -- goodness! I need ideas on how to quilt this quilt!

The top actually measures 70 x 82 - I would have like to made it bigger but could no longer get the beautiful black batik. Believe me, I searched! That outer border is pieced from 2 x 4's that were left over from the blocks! It worked. Lots of seams, but it lays flat! Which in and of itself is a small miracle.

Well, today I managed to use my trusty mono-thread to stitch in the ditch along the bright narrow border and around each star to stabilize the quilt. By the way, it really wasn't that emotional for me. I turned on my iPod full of praise and worship songs and focused on the blessings of today as well as the memories of yesterday, without dwelling on the "sad" part.

I have quilted three out of the four borders (and yes, I turned the quilt) and have one more to go before I tackle the interior. By the way, I did the ba-bump feathers -- if you're familiar with Jamie Wallen's teaching this is a take off of one of his feathers...photos to follow later for those of you clueless to my expression of "ba-bump". Just imagine a feather that really looks like a molar at the end and you'll get a visual. It's a narrow border so I marked a soft wavy line for my spine (with chalk) and ba-bumped away (grin).

Oh, and did I mention that I'm using Hobbs Tuscany Wool batting?! I love that batting - even here in hot humid Houston it's the best to sleep under. It's as light as a feather and breathable. Most of my personal quilts have the Tuscany Wool in them. This special quilt is no exception.

So, as I'm turning the quilt and thinking of all sorts of things to do I notice that I just love the way the wool makes the fabric seem softer somehow...and I'm thinking, do I want a dense quilt? I love dense quilting...but am thinking I want more "poof" in this quilt, feel more of the wool...hum...that's my problem. I don't remember how to do light custom. My thoughts for this quilt ran more towards a chance to play around with different design elements and somehow connect them with loops and swirls...sorta like how the night sky is full of constellations and yet are all connected...but then there's the draw of the poof. It's soooo soft..

So that's where I'm at...do I want to do light and fluffy or dense and interesting at the risk of being flat? Running the risk, actually, of just making a mess of this quilt. And this is just considering the black background! Goodness I don't know yet what I want to do in the stars. I thought about multiple thread changes and do Jamie's Flurry of Angels - very appropriate for the memories associated with this quilt...and yet, I sorta just want to leave the stars unquilted...or maybe treat this like a sampler and make every star different. oh the decisions! Oh the pressure (grin) I really wanted to work on it this weekend (as publicly declared) and try to finish up a long overdue project...but I'm tempted to take it off the frame and save it for another time (I think that's also called procrastination).

Maybe if I slept on it I'll wake up inspired. I hope it doesn't keep me awake thinking of it! And people wonder sometimes why it takes so long to get their quilts back to them....I remember hanging one quilt top in my studio for 36 hours just studying the quilt and trying to decide what to do (of course I was working on another one, a panto, while trying to decide how to custom quilt the hanging one). It's not easy. Creativity, I believe, is a gift from God...but sometimes I can't seem to plug in immediately. I've had folks tell me that they aren't creative...I tend to argue that thought - my point being...if we believe in a Creator, the One who put it all together with unspeakable amount of creativity, and if we take to heart that we are created in HIS image, then it goes without saying that we have the gift of creativity from Him -- oh, I can't make something out of nothing like God - I must start with something -- for example fabric -- but I can use the materials He's provided and the spark of imagination He provides to come up with something considered creative....therefore, with this reasoning, we all are creative because we have inherited that trait from our Creator God in whose image we are created. Makes sense don't ya think?

Hum..now if I can just quit trying so hard and let His creativity flow through me I'm sure I can finish this quilt...it may not be traditional or a show stopper, but I'm sure it will be creative...maybe like " a quilt that only the maker could love" -- but after all, who am I doing this for? Me and my Creator, and I think He'll like it. Daddy's are like that, so I'm sure my heavenly Father is too -- He delights in His children.

With that said...I can't wait until time to turn on my machine tomorrow after worship service and family lunch to see where the creative spirit leads. I'm sure it will be interesting to say the least -- maybe some lessons learned on what not to do on a customer quilt (grin) who knows what tomorrow will bring! But I know who holds my tomorrows!!

Long Over Due

At the 2002 Houston International Quilt Festival I was on a treasure hunt - a hunt for fat quarters. Not just any fat quarters, mind you, they had to be batik. It was my "lean year" -- seems about every other Festival it's either feast or famine, I either have money to spend or I don't. That year I didn't -- well, not much anyway.

But I had enough. Enough to pay for parking each day and enough to stretch out the hunt over several days -- enough to purchase about 20 fat quarters to make what I knew would be a fabulous quilt. And I had fun. For you see, it was just a pure joy to be there. The quilt bug had bit in 2000 and I was still fresh in this craft where everything was new and exciting. So what that I didn't have a shopping budget, it didn't cost much to be there (I'm 'local' and could make the daily commute -- that was before gas prices were so high!), I had a couple of days off work...why not go to simply absorb the excitement of the quilts on display, view the mass array of the vendors, and be lost in the simple joy of "people watching" -- and let's not forget -- the thrill of the hunt. My batik fat quarters! I guess you could say my thoughts that year agreed with the Apostle Paul when he said in Philippians 4:11 "..for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am" I was more than content to be at Festival, I was blessed!

I had a wonderful pattern in mind, Lucky Stars by Terri Atkinson, it was fat quarter friendly and I just knew my new found treasure would light up like the night sky on the background fabric I hoped to be able to purchase soon - a beautiful black batik that was speckled with what appeared to me to be super novas. Yep, the treasure hunt was a huge success, I was overjoyed with my purchases and my plans.

Naturally I was eager to begin this project as soon as I recovered from all the Festival goings...I made a few blocks and was so pleased with myself. I can remember sharing those blocks with a few special friends hoping they could envision the outcome as I could...but alas...things have a way of stealing away that piecing time....all too soon my wonderful treasure hunt had become a dreaded UFO to be packed away in the sewing closet of our tiny apartment -- a closet that was actually the laundry closet with the washer and dryer behind accordion doors in my kitchen dining combo of a room. A closet carefully organized with clear plastic shoe boxes housing all my fat quarter stash, my patterns, my UFO's and my special hopes for "Starry Starry Night" -- what I had dubbed my hopeful quilt.

Time passes by. Life throws some curve balls. Other projects were completed before Starry Starry Night, after all, I was now teaching beginning quilting classes at the local quilt shop and area churches and I had to have class samples. I had already taught Lucky Stars and didn't need another one for show and tell...it would just have to wait for it's someday.

As a little girl I grew up with "show and tell" -- well, at least that's what I call it now. My mom was a gifted seamstress and made all my sister's and my clothing, plus her own. I can remember holiday weekends such as this (Labor Day, 4th of July, New Year's) when the local Cloth World would have their big sales. We were always up bright and early ready to go pattern and fabric shopping with mom. I can only imagine that she and dad saved up for these big events -- that and the big sale days at the local mall where we did purchase a few "store bought" clothes. Regardless of which type of sale when we got home everything was spread out on the couch for our "show and tell" for when daddy got home. We'd either be showing off the pretty fabric and the future pattern, or modeling the dresses we found in the "bargain basement" at the Foley's Department Store. Didn't matter, it was all met with a round of applause, lots of ohhs and ahhs from daddy. We felt like princesses.

I never out grew "show and tell" - my husband learned the proper responses when I'd come home from a shopping trip for myself or our two boys...and he was always sincere too. I guess he knew how important it was for me that my efforts met his approval.

As I entered the world of quilting and discovered quilt guilds this love of show and tell followed me -- that's actually my why of being involved in local guilds...but I digress and get ahead of my story as it wasn't until April 2004 until I joined my first guild. And yes, for the record, show and tell is my favorite part of the evening!

Back it up almost a year after my treasure hunt for batik fat quarters. I am eagerly awaiting the approaching Houston International Quilt Festival 2003, this year with a little more spending money! It's still weeks away when I get a phone call from my dad. It's not good news.

Seems my dad, who had never been sick a day in his life, was feeling poorly. He'd gone to the doctor and they did some blood work. He was having a biopsy on his liver "just to check". The news wasn't good and a colonoscopy was scheduled. I went to be with my parents some 250 miles north of where I live...in a matter of weeks our lives were changed forever. Dad had colon cancer. And it had already gone into his liver.

I was back and forth to my parents. My sister, who lived in Florida at the time, arranged to come stay several weeks. I was working full-time, had a senior and freshman in high school and trying to maintain some sense of normality. I turned to my therapy of quilting. And I prayed. First I made a prayer quilt for my dad...I'll share more about prayer quilts another time, but I've photographed the several that I've made throughout the past 10 years or so in my Webshots. And I prayed.

I also pulled out my "Starry Starry Night". I needed to piece. Time to finish this one. It was my prayer time. My prayers for daddy. As I pieced, I prayed.

In November of that year (2003) I decided that I needed to give my notice at my job and be more available to assist my mom with my dad's care. My last day at work would be right before the Thanksgiving holiday. My husband, two sons, and I went for a quick one day trip to see mom and dad on Thanksgiving (500 mile round trip). He wasn't strong enough for us to stay long, his surgery and cancer was weakening him. My sister was scheduled to return to Florida the following week, so that's when I was going to come back to be of help, I could stay longer now since I was no longer gainfully employed.

In the meantime, I needed to continue my therapy of sewing. My quilt of choice, back to "Starry Starry Night". As I pieced, I prayed, and I received peace. My goal...to have the top completed by the time I went to see dad so I would have some "show and tell".

It's almost been 5 years, but I can still remember sewing on those last pieces on the quilt top. I had taken all the parts that were suppose to be sashing and made a scrappy border -- I just didn't like the way the colors in the pattern were breaking up my night-time sky effect in the body of the quilt, so I changed the pattern to my liking. I had just pronounced it good and had laid it on the couch to take a photo when the phone rang. My dad was passing.

I didn't make it home in time to say goodbye. Dad never saw my last show and tell. Brings tears to my eyes as I think of it now, yet in my heart of hearts, no, deep in my soul, yes, deep within my very spirit, I know my dad was whisked into the gates of splendor and welcomed by his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who said "well done my good and faithful servant, enter in to the joy of thy salvation".

Why today, why am I writing this? Two reasons. One, I attended a funeral today of another dear man, a true servant of our God and King. He was a co-worker of mine 5 years ago when my dad passed. A good man. A true solider in the Lord's Army as his pastor stated today. His illness wasn't an 8 week battle with cancer like my dad's, but instead a longer trial with Lou Gehrig's Disease. He fought the battle well. He finished the race on Tuesday morning of this week and today friends gathered with his family to say our farewells. For you see, if you are a true believer in Jesus, you know it's not really good bye, it's just "see you soon" -- it's a temporary separation. That's our hope. To one day be reunited in heaven spending eternity with our God and Savior.

Returning home from this celebration of a dear saint's life I was reminded of my own dad's homecoming, and the unquilted "Starry Starry Night" -- for you see, even though I finished piecing it the day dad went to heaven, I haven't been able to quilt it. First it was pure emotions, naturally, and well, added to that I didn't have a longarm yet -- but my dad shared that dream with me. The last time I saw him he was encouraging me to purchase a longarm and start my dream. Two years later, on the anniversary date of his homecoming, I had an open house to celebrate my own longarm and the new home that God provided for me to set up a studio (and for my family to dwell- it's not all about the studio, but that's where I spend most of my time). No more working out of the laundry closet, I now had an entire room to call my own. I chose the date of dad's passing as a tribute to him believing in me. That was 2005.

I have to take a deep breath here because I am publicly making a commitment to finally finish the quilt that was to be my show and tell for dad. This weekend I will be loading "Starry Starry Night" on my quilting frame and praying as I quilt that the good Lord will comfort the family who is temporarily separated from their loved one through this process we call death. I will be praying for God to guide my fingers as I guide my longarm...not that the quilting would be anything over the top or show quality, but that He would be honored in my thank offering for the gifts He has given me...the gift of life, love, and His promise of eternity. I know the journey of "quilting through" will not be without emotion...but it's long over due and I intend to do my best
- for His glory.