Testing (and Grumbling about) the New Blogger

I'm expecting a fail with this new version of Blogger but I'm hoping against it.

Let's try a photo.

So far so good. 

Now let's try a preview.  Nope, not so good.  It won't show me a preview.  But wait, the fine print (or the little box at the bottom left of the screen that pops up and disappears before I can read it) says, "Preparing preview."  Waiting, waiting, waiting....  And, it's still not available after a trip downstairs to take laundry from the dryer.   I depend on previews.  And after more than 20 minutes, the only way I can see a preview is by returning to Legacy Blogger.

Why is the font so large in the column on the right with labels, etc.?  In old Blogger all the icons are across the top and easy to use.  Now, I have to click the column of three dots to see more options. 

And why is everything so spread out?  I'm in favor of conserving space so I don't have to race my mouse all over the screen to do a few simple things.

And what was wrong with the old Blogger, anyway?  (Can you tell I don't like change?)

Google Blog tells me it wants to create an "easy and intuitive experience" for anyone who wants to blog.  I think they mean the people who blog from their cell phones or the people who are tech savvy.  I know it doesn't mean me because there is nothing easy or intuitive about this newest version of Blogger.  Maybe Blogger really wants to discontinue the blogging platform and drive people to Instagram or some other method of sharing.  Or maybe it wants to re-attract the younger folks who've already moved to Instagram.  I'm sad to say it may drive me away from blogging altogether.

But wait!  There may be one good thing about this new version.  I can click on a photo and change the size by dragging a corner.  That was a wonderful option in the first version of Blogger I ever used, the one before Legacy Blogger.  (Except sadly, it doesn't always work.)

So, I'll continue to use Legacy Blogger as long as I can and maybe try to practice with the new Blogger.

I really, really don't like change.  (You can probably hear me sighing all the way from here to there.)

--Nancy.
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Right Brain, Left Brain, Quilter's Block

There are times when I'm making a quilt --especially one that isn't a specific block pattern-- that I make decisions as I go along (for example, the Gwen-inspired medallion quilt).  Occasionally there are times when my brain gives me no ideas for the next step and I get stuck, stopped completely.  I can't come up with the next idea, the next step, the next shape, color, pattern, the next anything.  I assumed it was just me and how my mind works.  But maybe not.

I happened onto Mary Lou Weidman's book, Quilted Memories: Celebrations of Life, when I was at the library the other day.  She wrote something I found really interesting.

     I have read everything I could find about creativity over my lifetime.  I have also read a lot about writing and what is called writer's block.  Writer's block is similar to what many quilters go through when they start having doubts about their design.
     Whether you know it or not, this is the battle of right brain vs. left brain.  Both sides of the brain have their own roles.  Left brain is in charge of analytical traits, reasoning, and math.  Right brain likes play, design, and creativity.  Now, we need both our right brain and our left brain, but there is something you may not know.  The left brain likes to take over in some people, and in others the right brain takes over.  When  you go to work on a quilt design and you start thinking "I can't do this!  What made me think I can design my own quilt?" that is the left brain saying, "Hey, let me take over, let's do something I like to do."  Many people follow the left brain and give up.  But if you can challenge your brain and give it a few right-brain exercises, you can get into right-brain mode.

It's not just me!  And since she includes some right-brain exercises to try I should be able to get past my occasional "quilt block."  The book also has a section called, "How to Increase Your Creativity Quotient" in which the author offers an annotated list of a dozen suggestions.  There were lots of good ideas but I was especially pleased with her suggestion to "Start more than one project."  Do quilters really need encouragement to do that?! 

Maybe your library has the book and you can see the whole list.  (I don't want to violate copyright and include it here.)  Mary Lou blogs at Mary Lou and Whimsy Too if you'd like to see some of her work and read more of her ideas.

Do you ever get "quilter's block?"  If so, how do you get past it?

I hope you're having a good weekend.

--Nancy.
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Two Things

First.  Too much of a good thing is just too much.

That blue border is very scrappy.  There are at least half a dozen different fabrics but there are many, many more pieces of fabric.  I think it works.  But now that I'm thinking of another border made of several different fabrics, I'm not so sure more scrappy will make this quilt better.  Maybe too much of a good thing is overload, maybe just too much.  (Of course, there are several considerations yet for this border, the narrow border between it and the cabin border (color and width), and the stars.  Where are the stars?!)  Have I mentioned that I don't know what I'm doing with this quilt, or where it's going?  Even so, I'm (mostly) enjoying the creative challenge of it.

Most who are making Gwenny-medallions aren't posting about them until they've finished the current border.  Is that a "rule" for quilt-alongs?  I hope not because here I am with two "non-progress" posts in two days.


Second.  That voice in my head.

Are you like me?  Do you have a voice in your head that sometimes tells you negative things?  The disdainful little voice in my head tells me things like, "You'll never succeed at that.  You'll never be good enough."  Or, "Who do you think you are, trying to accomplish something like that?"  Or, "You may have talents/skills/abilities, but that's not one of them."  Or maybe one of the worst, "You always mess things up and you'll do the same with this."

I rarely have trouble silencing that voice.  I know whose it is and its purpose and I focus on other things, other grander purposes than the negative.  But there are times -- when I'm learning something new or challenging and haven't quite mastered it; when I'm pushing to finish something by a tight deadline; or when I'm tired or don't feel well -- that I have a little trouble ignoring the messages.  Today was one of those days.  I know it's because I'm tired and because I feel achy (which I hope is because I'm tired or slept in an uncomfortable position).  I know I'll feel better after a good night's sleep.  I'll have a better outlook and perhaps I'll dream of a great border idea, or maybe I'll just see the quilt differently when I'm not tired.

At times like this I love to remember this quote by F. Enzio Busche.

When you are physically sick, tired, or in despair, steer your thoughts away from yourself and direct them, in gratitude and love, towards God.

What grand direction, worth heeding and following.  He has more to say, which you can hear in the brief video below.


I'm so grateful for so many wonderful blessings, including the freedom to choose creativity.

I hope you have a pleasant, restful Sabbath.

--Nancy.
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In Control, or Not

I want to thank all of you readers who took the time to leave kind, thoughtful, generous comments on my last post.  Thank you!  I appreciate your thoughts and prayers more than you know.  (I haven't responded to your comments yet but I will, soon.)

My husband's surgery went well today.  They let me visit for only a few minutes while he was recovering in intensive care.  He had at least half a dozen tubes including a breathing tube, several IVs, and a few other tubes coming from/going into places that aren't natural openings.  Ugh.

The surgeon quipped that this was a good time to say anything I wanted to my husband because he couldn’t talk back.  And the nurse chimed in, "And he won't remember anything you say, either."  A little levity after a long, serious, grueling day.

Knowing the surgery could last from four to eight hours, I waited at home till four hours had passed, then spent the next few hours in the waiting room at the hospital.  After seeing my husband I returned home.  While at home I sewed and did a few chores.

As I was sewing these liberated log cabin blocks I was thinking, "I can't do this out-of-control block-making.  I need more structure.  I need to be in control."   (It feels like I'm living a life out of control at the moment.)  While I sewed I continued to think about this and it eventually occurred to me that with blocks like this I am in control.  I'm the one who's controlling the size of the logs, the size of the blocks, the colors, the color placement, everything about these blocks.  I think it feels out of control because only a few decisions were made before cutting and sewing.

When I sew a block from a specific pattern with squares or triangles cut to specific sizes, I'm in control, then, too.  It happens before I cut anything, while I cut, and while I carefully sew -- all for accuracy to that specific pattern.

With liberated blocks the control happens throughout the whole process of making the blocks but in a different way.  I will have chosen my fabrics (and therefore colors) and the pattern, but I may not have chosen the exact sizes of each piece of a block.  The blocks may be put together in a way that looks less accurate than a traditional quilt block.  But all of those choices are in my control and will determine how the finished blocks look.

Liberated quilting may look more playful, less structured, and less controlled than traditional blocks but I believe the creator must have as much or possibly more control than with traditional blocks.

I wish life were as easy to control as quilt blocks.  My life is certainly beyond my ability to control it at the moment.  I know He is and was always in control, but when things were going smoothly, I had the impression of having some control over my life.  Now, my control extends only as far as my own actions and thoughts. 

Even so, isn't life grand?!  And how wonderful that we get to play with fabric and make quilts.

I hope you're having a good day today.

--Nancy.
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Life Interrupted

The regular rhythm and routines of our lives have been interrupted this week (and will be for weeks to come).  My husband had a heart attack on Tuesday and has been in the hospital since then having tests and being monitored.  He's scheduled for triple bypass surgery on Monday.  He and I mutually agree that being the patient and being the caregiver are equally difficult and stressful, but in different ways.  He was caregiver when I had hip replacement surgeries a dozen years ago.  Now it's my turn.

Sewing a few (almost) mindless blocks is relaxing during times like this.  I began these weeks ago -- chose the colors, decided the size -- but until I sew more and lay them out I won't know if they will work for their intended purpose.  (They are paler in real life than in the photograph.)

These rust-colored flowers at the far side of the hospital parking lot caught my eye as I walked toward the entrance. 

On the way out I stopped to take a closer look . It wasn't until then that I realized they were orange and maroon/purple/violet.

I doubt I would ever have put those two colors together, but I might now.

I've had to pick up the Buckeye Beauty blocks.  My older daughter, her husband, and their three little ones are coming to visit this weekend.  I know she wants to see her father and I couldn't tell her not to come.  Many years ago my own father went into the hospital on a Thursday having suffered from a heart attack.  I was 8 months pregnant at the time but intended to visit him that weekend.  My mom insisted we not come, that we wait and see.  My father died the following Monday.  I believe my husband will be fine but I would never tell either of my daughters not to visit in a situation like this.

While sitting with my husband at the hospital or waiting while he has tests, I am stitching the binding to the back of the Red Wings quilt.  (I find it difficult to just sit.)  At least I will have accomplished one goal this month.

If you leave a comment I will respond but it may take me a few days or a week longer than usual.

Happy quilting to you!

--Nancy.
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Proportion, Size, Symmetry, Balance -- How Does a Quilter Decide?

One of the things I love about traditional quilts is the rhythm created by blocks repeated across the surface of a quilt.  Even when colors vary, lights and darks change places, or many or few fabrics are used, I can usually see that rhythm (sometimes held in place only by sashing between blocks, other times interrupted by faded fabric).  Those variations create interest for me.  I see the whole then devour the quilt one block at a time.

I also love the balance and symmetry that I see in old quilts.  Of course, not all old quilts have balance or symmetry in the blocks or across the surface.  Those quilts that don't are, perhaps, more interesting and I try to imagine the creative ethic, experience/knowledge, and circumstances of the quilter.  What prompted her to choose those colors, or to use one odd block with 35 others all the same, or to make the quilt the size it is?

When making quilts --modern, traditional, improv, any quilts-- I give too much thought to quilt sizes and proportions.  Maybe it's because I'm still learning how to "get it right."  Not that there's any particular wrong about a quilt size but there are some sizes and proportions that seem more pleasing to the eye and are possibly more useful.  In fact, when I'm riding in the car with my husband driving and I have a quilt book in tow that I've finished reading or looking at the photos, I sometimes go through it quilt by quilt and write down the sizes of each.  Weird, I know.  What I've found is that quilt sizes and proportions vary a lot.  A whole lot!  (One of these days I'm going to type the numbers into some kind of order so I can compare.)

For instance, a few quilts in Unconventional & Unexpected:  American Quilts Below the Radar, 1950-2000, had these measurements (in inches):
61 x 78
61 x 81
62 x 71
62 x 77
62 x 80
62 x 85
63 x 79
63 x 81
63 x 87
64 x 80
64 x 87
65 x 78

I struggle with quilt sizes.  In a blog comment someone told me the quilt size I chose would depend on the bed I was going to use for the quilt.  She's right, of course, except that I don't make quilts for beds, I make quilts to keep people warm, maybe on a bed, but just as often for a nap.  And I make quilts to play with fabric.  But I also want quilts that are a comfortable size:  not too long, not too short, not too wide, not too narrow.  (I'm sure you've seen a hired man's quilt, at least in a book:  narrow and long.)  Proportion matters to me.

But it's not just the physical sizes and proportions I think about, it's also the balance in a quilt.  In an on-point setting, a row can end with four blocks or five blocks (or any two other numbers depending on the size of the blocks and the width of the quilt).  When the ends don't have the same number of blocks it looks odd to me.  Uneven, unbalanced.  To my eyes, the same number of blocks on both ends and on both sides looks balanced.

I have three quilts that seem too long. 

First:  String-X.  

Finished it measures 69" x 93".  That's 7' 9" long!  Who needs a quilt that long?  Each diagonal string block measures 7", each set of our measures 14" x 14".  When I was deciding the layout of the quilt I knew I wanted the ends to be balanced.  The quilt could have been 7", 14", or 21" shorter, but only by leaving a row of blocks off of each end would it still have been balanced.  I could have had a quilt that measure 69 x

Second:  Plaid Churn Dash.

This quilt measures 64" x 89". The blocks are 7 1/2" square.  Again, it's a quilt with the blocks set on point.  (Maybe it's only on point settings that create this problem of quilts that are balanced are too long.  I don't know.)

And last, Red Wings (my most recent quilting finish).  It hasn't been bound or washed and dried yet, so the measurements will change after all that happens.  As it is now, it measures 64 3/4" x 97 1/4".  It's an inch shorter than String-X was before being washed and 2 1/4" inches narrower.  It's just shy of 8 feet!!!  I knew it would be long but I wanted those balanced ends.   

Here it is with one row folded under on the end.  It measures 64 3/4" x 89".  The overall measurement is better but it doesn't look balanced to me.  One end has 5 half-blocks, the other has 4 half-blocks (which are cut off toward the bottom of the photo).

Lastly, here it is with two squares folded under on one end.  It's balanced with 4 half-squares on each end, but it looks squatty to me.  It measures 64 3/4" x 81", nearly 7 feet.

I've seriously thought of cutting off the end of this quilt, even though it would mean I'd have a bias edge to deal with, but I can't make myself cut it to 81".  It could end up only 73" or 74" long.

The other consideration when deciding the size of a quilt is shrinkage.  By the time I finish hand quilting I've lost at least an inch in width and two in length.  Add to that (or subtract from that, if you will) the shrinkage from washing and drying and the loss in width could be from 2 to 5 inches and between 2 and 7 inches in length.  (To date the only bats I've used are Mountain Mist Cream Rose and Soft & Crafty 80/20 cotton/poly.)

If you've read this far you're a trooper and I thank you.  I hope you'll go one step further and tell me how you decide the size of your quilts.  Do you choose it by blocks:  x # of blocks by y # of blocks?  Do you go for length and width without consideration for balance?  Do you try to balance the ends and sides to have the same number of blocks?  Do you consider shrinkage when you're deciding the size of a quilt?

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about proportions, sizes, symmetry, and balance when making a quilt.  I appreciate it!

I'd love lots of responses to my questions so I'm linking to
- TGIFF : Go West Flimsy at The Carpenters Daughter Who Quilts
- Off the Wall Friday at Creations... Quilts, Art.... Whatever
- Fabric Frenzy Friday at Forth Worth Fabric Studio {Blog}
- Fabric, Thread and Yarn at France Nadeau
- finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts
- Can I get a Whoop Whoop?  at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
- Midweek Makers #27 at  Quilt Fabrication
Thanks for hosting, ladies!

--Nancy.
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Cutting Up Fabric to Make a Quilt

Some years ago the women of our church gathered to make quilts and clothing for a service project.  One of the women worked at home with her family and brought an armload or two of fleece blankets to donate.

Later we were talking and she said,

My husband just doesn't understand the point of buying long pieces of fabric only to cut them up into smaller pieces and then sew them back together to make a quilt.  He thinks it's ridiculous. 

As far as I could tell from our conversation and her body language she agreed with him.  I was surprised because I'd never before heard anyone be so adamant against quilts.  But because I don't have a ready wit, I didn't have a response.  A few days later, when it was really too late to say it, I thought,

I guess it's like cutting up long pieces of lumber to make a floor . . . .

Or a table, a chair, a cupboard, or a house....  I guess a floor is more like a quilt because they are both flat.

I feel sad to think that they misinterpret the love that goes into a quilt given as a gift, the joy of sleeping under a handmade quilt, and the beauty of such a quilt.


Do you know anyone who is anti-quilting?

--Nancy.
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To Keep Her Heart from Breaking

Imagine America's prairie before there were automobiles, before there were highways, roads, or dirt paths; before towns or stores.  Imagine back to a time when the prairies were unsettled and unclaimed and horses pulled wagons with all of one's possessions to new homestead land.

Imagine a little sod hut settled on that wide, open land where one could see for miles and miles and not see another person for months and months.

A pioneer woman sat beside her husband on the wagon as he drove to their new home.  When they finally arrived at their land her husband stopped the wagon and, looking at the barren land on which sat a tiny sod hut, he said, “Isn’t that the most beautiful sight you’ve ever seen?”

I believe I might have wept.  No matter what one's prior circumstance was, to move to a sod hut would probably be worse. 

Pioneer women had one thing in common:  hardships. Bad weather, threat of Indian attacks, pestilence, disease.  "One hardship that we tend to overlook is isolation.  Picture a pioneer's little cabin, several hundred miles away from any semblance of civilization and the nearest neighbor often many miles away.  The emotional support of a friend was not easily found.  These pioneer women provided emotional sustenance to their families but had no one to whom they could turn.  Their exhausted husbands could not, in many cases, meet their emotional needs....  Perhaps that is why they eagerly turned to quilting.  Very few crafts provide both utilitarian and aesthetic functions like quilting."

The story of the pioneer couple and the description of isolation among pioneer women reminds me of something a very old pioneer woman said about quilting.

I quilted as fast as I could
to keep my family warm and
as beautifully as I could
to keep my heart from breaking.

Most of us have it easier these days than did the pioneer women of 150 years ago.  We quilters probably all quilt as beautifully as we can, but to sit and sew a quilt without a pressing need for one is a luxury.  It's certainly a luxury I generally take for granted -- at least until I pause and reflect on the blessings in my life.  To have fabric at hand or the means and proximity to a store to buy fabric is a wonderful blessing.

It snowed here yesterday.  Not much, just a few flakes, just enough to remind me that winter will arrive soon.  I'm grateful I'm not physically isolated from others and that I don't have the pressing need to make quilts to keep my family warm.   I feel grateful for nearby friends to visit; for telephones to visit with friends and family who don't live nearby; and for the internet which connects me to distant blogging friends whom I have never met.  And I'm grateful I don't live in a sod hut!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Sources:

• The image of the field with bales of straw/hay was taken in Iowa in 2005.
• The image of the sod hut was photographed by Jason who generously made it available at Flickr for posting with attribution and credit.
• The story about the homesteaders and the tiny sod hut was told in Lillian Schlissel's book, Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey.  (Page number not recorded.)
• The quotes about pioneer women/isolation and quilting beautifully come from "The Pioneer Spirit," an essay by Mike Hartnett in Kathy Lamancusa's book, Quilts Are Forever.
• Crossed Ts Quilt:  International Quilt Study Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008.040.0059.

--Nancy.
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Seduced by Color

It happens nearly every time.  I need (or want) fabric, probably a particular color for a particular project.  I walk into the store and I'm suddenly on color overload.  I love nearly every fabric, nearly every color, nearly every print or plaid or plain.  I forget the color I came into the store to find because, well, the exact color just isn't there and there are all these other beautiful fabrics.

I look and look and look.  I pull bolts off the shelf and carry them around, trying to decide which fabrics to buy, what my budget will allow, how much of each I can buy, how I might use it.  Then I remember the color I was searching for and realize that none of the bolts I'm holding is exactly the color or pattern I came into the store to buy, nor even a good substitute.  One by one, I eliminate bolts of fabric putting them back in their places until I'm carrying nothing.

I walk out of the store empty-handed.

I'm a scrap quilter.  I do better when I have to use what's already available at home.  My shelves are stocked with spur-of-the-moment purchases because I was in the store for some notion or other.  But I can rarely go to the store shopping for fabric and come home with just what I was hoping to find.  There are just too many choices.

How about you?  Are you stronger than me?  Can you make quick, easy decisions about your fabric purchases?  Or are you, too, seduced by color?

I'm linking to Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life.

--Nancy.
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Perspective, Reality, Attitude, Choice

This is part of an address by David Foster Wallace given at Kenyon College.  The images enhance the 10-minute video.  I appreciated the food for thought.  Maybe you will, too.



--Nancy.
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Happy Mother's Day

The day is almost over -- but not quite.  If you're a mother, I hope you've been remembered and honored in some way large or small.  If you have a mother who's still alive, I hope you sent a card, phoned, or visited her.  And if your mother's gone, I hope you remembered her and whispered a few words of love and thanks to her. 

It's a dear honor and a great responsibility to be a mother.  There have been plenty of difficulties raising two daughters, especially when they were teens and our thoughts and opinions went in different directions.  But we persevered and they came through to responsible adulthood.

Not too long ago one of my daughters and I overheard a mother at a store complaining to someone on the phone about having given her daughter everything she asked for.  She went on, "I've done everything for her and I know she'll just turn her back on me."  I commented aloud to my daughter that if that mom loved her daughter and built a relationship with her, she would turn out to be her best friend.  I think of both of my daughters as my best friends and I'm grateful for the women they have become. 

Blessings to you this Mother's Day.
--Nancy.

You can read previous Mother's Day posts on my family history blog here, here, and here.
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Little Luxuries

One of the first posts I read by another quilting blogger was Claire Witherspoon's Blog Hop and Going Primitive at Cspoonquilts.  Claire explained that she had recently gone on a non-quilting road trip with her husband.  She wanted to quilt along the way so pared down the supplies she took to her featherweight machine and a bag of flannel scraps, plus a cutting mat, rotary cutter, and iron.  When she forgot the mat, cutter, and iron at a previous stop, she stopped at a store and bought scissors and a tape measure.  She was left to make a quilt with those simplest of tools:  tape measure, scissors, and sewing machine.  (And she did a fine job of it.  The quilts were so fun!)

At about the same time I read Claire's post, a young quilter taught an introductory quilting class to a group other young women at our church.  I was in another area of the large room working on something else when I overheard her telling the women that there were a few supplies that were essential for them to buy before they could make quilts. Her list included a sewing machine, a rotary cutter, an acrylic ruler, and a cutting mat.

I have made quilts since about 1974 (though I can't really call myself a quilter because the ones I've made have been few and far between and until just recently were tied quilts).  The first quilt I made was a Christmas gift for my grandfather.  It was a 9-patch for which I used a 3½" square of cardboard as a pattern and scissors to cut the blocks.  I cut each of the corduroy squares separately and stitched them, two pieces at a time, on my sewing machine.  (It is much-faded now and some of the corduroy has worn smooth after much use and many, many washings.)

I chuckled as I thought about tools that have become essential which in times past would have been luxuries or completely unknown items.  How times change.  My mind wandered back to pre-sewing machine days.  Oh my, what did the ladies do?  Of course they stitched by hand with a needle and thread.  But how did they get their quilts square?  And how long did it take to make a block, let alone make a whole quilt?

And then I thought of this couplet . . .

There, there, Little Luxury, don't you cry.

You'll be a necessity by and by.

. . . and realized how much in my life has moved from luxury to essential.  I remember going to a quilting class at church 25 years ago where the teacher showed how she cut with her rotary cutter and mat.  I wasn't quilting much at the time but what a handy tool!  I was on it the next day, off to the store to see if I could find (and afford) to buy one.

Isn't it amazing how, over time, luxuries become necessities?  What would we do without our sewing machines (and the electricity to run them), our cutting mats, acrylic rulers, and rotary cutters?  For that matter, how could I live without my cell phone these days?

How about you?  Do you own essentials that were once luxuries?

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A Problem with Chocolate

How is it that 2 ounces of chocolate, unwrapped and sitting on the table, become 16 ounces as soon as they pass through my mouth and into my body?  What exactly happens between the unwrapping, the chewing, and the digesting that I just don't understand? 

Does anyone else have this problem, too?

--Nancy.
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Speedy Quilters. Or, I'm Slow, You're Fast

When I look at the sidebar of my blog (or in google reader or at the sidebars of others' blogs) and see the images of quilts other people are making and I'm so impressed with all the amazing work, the activity, the creative energy, and the speed at which people are making quilts.  I love looking at everything you've made and there are so many quilt patterns and techniques I want to try.  Some of you seem to finish a new quilt every few days or, at the very least, every week!  It's amazing! 

I, on the other hand, just finished stitching together the quilt I've been working on for more than a few weeks. I'm still hand-quilting the same quilt that I've been working on for months and months.  I plod on -- while I see all the beautiful new work the rest of you share every day!

I know I'm not alone in feeling this way.  Just the other day Samantha at Sami's Quilts and Crafts shared A Little Whine describing very similar thoughts.

Is it true that the rest of you finish a quilt each week?  It can't be so, can it?  It must just seem so when I see new images of quilts every day when I scroll through blogs.

I want to work faster. I want to do more and finish more in a shorter amount of time.  I hope I will . . . after I'm back to "normal" and walking again.

Happy stitching!

--Nancy.

Now Why Did I Come In Here?

Does this happen to you?  You walk into a room for some particular reason - maybe to pick up a magazine or look for something - and suddenly forget why you're there?

If you're like me perhaps you thought it was old age creeping up.  Not so!  Well, in my case, old age is creeping up but it's not the cause of this problem.  Turns out doors are the problem.

Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have published the results of a study which discovered that walking through doorways causes an event boundary in the mind, separating one set of thoughts from the next.  The old thoughts or memories stay in the old room (figuratively).  The doorway opens to the brain a new, blank slate for new thoughts and memories in the new room.

I guess this explains why I have to walk back into the room where I first had the thought to remember why I went into the next room.  Strange how that works, isn't it?

What a relief to learn that doors have been causing my problem.  Thank goodness for researchers and studies.

Read here for more details about the study.

Thoughts on Scrap Quilts

Q. When is a scrap quilt not a scrap quilt?
A. When I have to buy fabric to make it.

If I have to buy fabric to make a quilt, then my scrap quilt looks like a scrap quilt but isn't really a scrap quilt because I'm not using scraps anymore. Right?

I have a good supply of fabric from years of sewing but I find that my color preferences for clothes were narrower than my color preferences for quilting. These days I find myself buying fabric by color range....

But then, what's in a name?  These days when we hear "scrap quilt" we probably think more of a style of quilt rather than origin of the fabric for the quilt.

If you're a scrap quilter, where do you get your scraps?
If you're not a scrap quilter, what do you do with your scraps?
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Quilting Rules

Someone once wrote (please forgive me because I don't remember who wrote it) that every quilt has rules. I thought, yes, quarter inch seams, follow the pattern, tiny quilting stitches, etc. I continued reading and she explained her thought a little differently than I anticipated.

The creator of a quilt chooses her own rules for each quilt she makes.
She can decide

• the size of the blocks, if there are blocks.
• whether the quilt will have a pattern or not.
• to use few colors or many, and which.
• whether she will use the same fabrics throughout or a wide variety of fabrics.
  
• whether there will be consistency throughout the quilt or not.
• and any other other aspect of the quilt.
  

Sometimes I see quilt patterns that I love but don't necessarily like the colors, the block size, the overall size, or something else about the quilt. I either pass over the pattern and choose a different one or, if it's not too complicated, I alter it to fit my idea of what I'd rather see.

I admit that sometimes the aesthetic of a quilt may not be pleasing if the quilter isn't careful and attentive, but I agree that the quilter makes the rules for her own quilt. What do you think?

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The accompanying photos are of a wedding ring quilt my great-grandmother made. She passed away in 1936 at the age of 78 so I know it was made before that. I think it's possible that some of the fabrics are from feed sacks. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

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Thanks for stopping by.
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