Khloee's Quilt Update

Well, I haven't blogged in a long while due to many things mostly being unable to get to the blogsite. But here is an update of the quilt for Khloee. It raised $800.01. It was given to the family who was so appreciative and grateful. Khloee has finished her first round of chemo and the radiation treatments in Boston and now is doing the second round of chemo. She is doing well. The woman that received the raffle quilt was just blown away and loves it. I also made a smaller version of the quilt and less detailed for Khloee so that she could take it with her to her treatments so that the love and prayers of her family and friends could wrap around her and hold her close to the love and hand of God.

Khloee's quilt done

Detail of the center blocks

Full picture of Khloee's Healing

Garden Quilt

Here it is, after having one malfunction after another in my studio I finally have the quilt finished for a fund raiser for the little girl that has a brain tumor. I have named the quilt Khloee's Healing Garden Quilt. It started out with an idea to do a combination of applique blocks along with 9 patches. I went on the search for the fabric and found the beautiful rose fabric. I picked up the narrow green striped, the pink doily fabric and the multi color batik fabric. I then searched through my stash and found the additional fabrics to get a color wash/blended look. The fun then began. Everything fell into place and the piecing went rather quickly. I then started the machine quilting. I just started in the center applique block with the ribbons and butterflies and I quilted feathers and adaptations all over. It is very symbolic of love and new life. It has hearts and butterflies and is very sweet and girlie. I am very pleased with the outcome.

Priorities

What are your priorities? This is a question that I have been asking myself lately. My class work on Quilt University with Myrna Giesbrecht has been making me look at what I want to do and where I want to be in my creative life. We have been talking about time, space and goals. I am looking at my goals and setting up mini goals to get me there.

This year I want to develop this blog. I know that I have to work through the steps of learning how to work incorporate this into my daily routine and all the technical steps to actually do it. So, I need to do the work.

My goals for this blog:
1. To start off I will blog a minimum of once a week, I will post more often as I get more proficient and have more to say.
2. I will post photos of my projects here with an explanation of my work. This will be a journal of my work so that I can review what I have done and be able to begin to work in a more directed path and to develop a body of work that will continue to expand and grow in skill.
3. I will develop my computer skills by learning and applying what I can do posting here and also my photo editing skills.
4. As I develop my skills here I will think about starting a personal blog to be able to keep in touch with my grown children who are all over the US serving our country in the Air Force and the Navy. This will be a way to keep them up to date on what is going on back home and they will be able to see pictures of good old Mom and Dad, home and relatives.

So much for today. I will sit down and think about further goals and mini goals that pertain to this blog and post them when I come up with something.

Allow for the unexpected

Well, yesterday I got some bad news while at work which has prompted me to stop and think what can I do to help. I am a nurse and I had a call from one of our patients , long story short, her 2 year old daughter had a brain tumor removed on New Years Day. It is cancerous and momma wanted to know if our clinic would allow them to put out a jar for donations to help them out since both her and her husband will have to miss a lot of work to care for their precious little girl. I directed her in the right direction and immediately started thinking about what I could do to help them out with expenses. I decided that I could make a quilt that could then be raffled off and all the proceeds could go to them. I checked with my boss to see if it would be permitted to display the quilt and sell raffle tickets for it at the medical center. I have a tenative yes and so I have started to make the decisions of what I want to make and I started to buy some fabric for it today. I want to also make a smaller version of the quilt to also give to them along with the money that is raised for them. I had another quilt prepared to start quilting on since before Christmas that I want to finish for myself but it will have to just wait a little while longer since this is too important to put off.

I want this quilt to be rather quick to complete but I also want it to be complex enough that it will generate lots of interest in buying a ticket to try to win it. I want it to be bright, beautiful and represent life and hope.

My reason for the title of this post. Allow for the unexpected. Allow time, allow resources, allow finances, allow creative ideas to flow to problem solve and allow yourself to put aside somethings for a short time to allow yourself to help someone else that is in need. Allow yourself to be thankful for the many blessings that you have and be willing to share what you can.

Be an answer to a problem, do what you can. It won't necessarily answer the entire need but if everyone would do what they can do to solve the problem instead of thinking about what they can't do, the problem will get solved.

I am going to do what I can and I am going to do the best that I can while doing that and the rest is up to God to take care of.

Projects for the New Year

Projects for the New Year

Now that the holiday festivities are over and the family is getting back to their respective jobs and routine, it has given me the opportunity to decide what my projects and goals for the new year will be. I belong to a group of quilters that have been working on creating denim jackets. I finished my jacket by recycling black denim jeans, a silk scarf that I layered quilted and then appliqued onto the jacket pieces. For the lining of the jacket I took old silk ties that my husband gave to me (he has a rather large fabric collection just in his tie collection). I wove the ties together without opening them up, fused them to fusible interfacing and then machine quilted them to hold them together. Then I cut out the pattern pieces and put the jacket all together. I really enjoyed recycling these items into something fabulous.

So for the New Year my goals are:
1. to use what I have and
2. to try to recycle as many pieces that I can that just aren't working as they are.
3. to finish up projects that I have.

These may sound overly simplified but many times that is what it takes. Make a few very simple changes that you know that you can do and do them until they become a habit and don't require any thought and then go to the next level. I have made many New Years Resolutions years past and they are abandoned before 2 weeks are past. Do you remember the movie "What About Bob?" with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfeus? Baby steps. We all learned to walk one baby step at a time, and with any task that is before us that appears to be overwhelming if we can look at it and break it down into baby steps we can make progress.

This year I want to start the transition from being a full time nurse and a part time quilt artist to a full time quilt artist and a part time nurse. I need to do the work that is needed to develop a body of work that will distinguish my signature style and to develop the work habits at home in my design studio that I have at work.

Opening Post

Hello everyone! I am new to blogging but this is one of the things that I wanted to do/learn in the new year. I have been quilting for 14 years or so. I love to make art quilts and have been exploring developing my own style. I have been also exploring dyeing fabric which I find so much fun and I want to spend some more time developing my skills in that area. I now need to create some quilts with the fabrics that I am creating. I have also been creating purses and totebags. I am setting out to be more purposeful with my work and learning new techniques that will enhance that work. I want to be able to share the things that I have learned here to help encourage others and to also be encouraged by others. Thanks for checking out my blog!