Beginnings and Endings

Happy New Year! 

I know it's still just New Year's Eve Day (Both an eve and a day!  It's a miracle...those of you who watch the TV show Bones should catch that....),  but Happy New Years anyway.  Good bye and good riddance to 2014 and hello 2015.

I don't make New Year resolutions.  I stopped doing that a long time ago.  I make New Year Suggestions.  Suggestions sounds a lot less stressful than resolutions.  Some of these are universal.  I want to eat more healthy.  I want to lose a few pounds.  I want to be kinder to people and less judgmental.

As a quilter, I want to clean out my sewing area and organize it.  And keep it that way.  

You may stop laughing at me now.  I really want to do this.  Really.  Especially if I ever get my new quilt studio finished. 

I absolutely don't need to find any additional new patterns that I just have to have. There is a two page spread sheet taped to my refrigerator  completely full of projects I want to do before my children put me in the home for old quilters.  So this year I have strongly suggested to myself that I will not add to that list.  I need to finish some tops and get some flimsies quilted. 

Seriously.

As 2014 is waning, the end of this year has also found be giving up a position that I have loved for the past three years:  President of the High Point Quilt Guild.

The guild held its first meeting the second Thursday of January 2012.  I knew there was interest out there for a guild in my area.  Greensboro had two guilds.  High Point had one during the 1980's but it disbanded years ago.  I told myself that I would be happy if we had 15 people show up.

We had 35 ladies present and were nearly sitting on each other's lap in the tiny community room we had rented.  They elected me president that night. 

Those women and men (we have two male members) have become some of the most awesome friends I've ever had.  Our guild grew from those 35 charter members to 60 in three years.  It has been an honor and a privilege to be their president.

At the December meeting, I inducted Angie Peele as the new president.  Angie is wonderful person, full of great ideas, and is so organized.  She's participated in the Guild's Round Robin with me and I can tell you from experience, she also quilts beautifully.  Her piecing is perfect. 

After that, I was going to sit down, but they weren't through with me yet.  The guild gave me this...

A little bit of background would help here.  Our guild's logo is the Friendship Star and its color is purple.  The purple thing is very convenient for me since one of my two favorite colors is purple (the other is pink).  So this purple Friendship Star quilt is just awesome. Lots of folks contributed to the construction of the quilt and Shelle Mancl and Linda Hudgins quilted it.

Judy Poteat did all the machine applique on the letters.

Another guild member, Liz Simmons, made me a wonderful bag to keep my quilt in until I can put a sleeve on it and hang it.

Linda then generously contributed more machine embroidery to the bag:

I was just so taken back at the moment, I couldn't talk.  I don't even remember what I said to thank all those wonderful guild members.  And I simply cannot believe that they did all of this right under my nose without me knowing a thing about it!  I can't believe that I never accidentally got an email, overheard a conversation, or saw "contraband" be passed right under my nose.  Nancy Blanchard said she handed off her block to Lisa Wagner when I was standing right beside of her.

I gotta be Captain Oblivious.

It wasn't until I got home and spread the quilt out that I realized something very important. 

The quilt was signed.

Every. Guild. Member. Signed. A. Block.

And that was when I cried.

These folks have no idea what they mean to me and how much I appreciate them. 

So next week when the guild meets, I have no agenda to write up, I don't have to be there early to set up, I don't have to make announcements. I don't even have to stay after to clean up if I don't want to.

I'm just a "regular" guild member.  No more Thursday evenings devoted to guild work.

It's going to be kind of nice.  I want to fully support our new president, who I know is going to do a fantastic job.  I will continue to handle the retreats and trips, but other than that, I've been given some space to find my new "niche" in the guild.

And that is kind of nice, too.

Love and Stitches,

Sherri

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas Here....

So the tree arrived last Tuesday.  I am an avid fan and customer of Backyard Produce and I can pre-order my Christmas tree from them in November.  The first week of December it arrives at my door ready to drag in the house and set up in the stand.

This is a wonderful service to all married women who like me, has a husband that would rather go for his yearly physical than be dragged all over town looking for that perfect tree.  And yes, I've gone the route of purchasing an artificial tree and trying to get him to participate in putting the tree up.

Again, I will refer you to the yearly physical exam thing.

Wednesday we had the grand darlings over and they helped decorate the tree.  The oldest "E" is almost two which means the ornaments were on the tree, not past my knee level.  It took some persuading (because we all know how cooperative almost two year-olds are), to move some to the back and to the top of the tree.

But fun was had by all. Especially the adults who had hot chocolate and Baileys....

 The kids had cup cakes....

 This last Christmas ornament was made by a wonderful friend of mine, Joann Cloer.  She's in my Tuesday night Sit and Sew and in the High Point Guild.  It has a special place near the top of my tree. 

It's a busy time of year, and I am helping out quite a bit with my guild's 2015 Raffle Quilt.  We're using Sue Garmon's pattern, Ruffled Roses -- with her permission and blessing.  Between that and just the busy-ness that comes this time of year, not a whole lot of quilting is going my way.  I am getting woefully behind! 


But I have plans for 2015.  I will "pass the baton" of guild presidency to Angie Peele.  Being president was a job that I loved with all my heart and truly gave it everything I had, but it seriously eats into your quilting time!  Traditionally, Thursday nights were the evenings I gave to the bee that I lead and guild work.  And sometimes guild work took a little time everyday of the week if we had something big on the calendar.  I jokingly called it my "second full time job."  Some weeks it was, but I can honestly say it has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.  And the baton is being passed to one of the most capable and organized women I know.  Not to mention that Angie is wonderful quilter.  Her work is simply beautiful and positively perfect. 

With some more free time on my calendar, I hope to get some good pictures of my antique quilts and post those for discussion. 

I also hope to wrap up At Piece with Time.

I also am designing my own quilt for a future Quilt Along. This was on my bucket list.

So...until next week, don't get so busy in the holiday rush that you forget the Reason for the season.

Love and Stitches,

Sherri

It's All About the Journey...

I admire quilters that can piece and quilt quickly.  It's a state of quilt Nirvana I have yet to reach.  My sewing machine rarely makes it past medium speed.  And since I also have to  quilt on a domestic machine (if I'm doing it myself), that also takes more time than I would like to admit. 

Some quilters I know are just so...talented.  It all seems to go so quickly and effortlessly for them.  Others just have more time than I do. 

And others need very little sleep. 

I am not one of an of those quilters.  I need sleep.  I don't have a lot of time to spend at the machine -- at least not as much as I want to have.  That coupled with the fact that 99 percent of  what I makes generally has some kind of handwork involved...I just not as fast as I want to be.

Couple that with the fact that I tend to gravitate towards large projects....

But sometimes there are tiny, nuggets of jewels that find their way into those large projects...

And this brings me to Dear Jane.

I began my journey with Jane a several years ago.  This is a major effort for any quilter.  It's well over 100 tiny, 4.5 by 4.5 squares that are intricate.  Most of them are paper pieced.  Quite a few are traditionally pieced.  Some are appliqued. 

A few of these blocks are a pain in the neck.  You can generally tell which ones are going to be this type.  Last week, I honestly thought the block was going to drive me up a wall, not because it was complicated, but because there were so many steps.  You cut blocks out, cut them on the diagonal.  Sewed them back together.  Cut them out again and applique them into a circle. 

I'm talking about block L-13.  I am so close to getting the center square finished that I'm champing at the bit to complete it and anything right now that even looks like it's going to slow me down tends to set my teeth on edge.  And I was so afraid that this block would be "one of those blocks."

However, like a lot of things I've done in quilting,  I was pleasantly surprised.  It went together quickly.  It appliqued easily...and I love the way it looks.

Now I am on the last row of Jane.  Thankfully, most of these blocks are paper pieced.  One will have to be mirrored.  Two are definitely challenges.  Then I will move on to those wonderful "kites" that border this quilt.  When I'm through, I will have three years of my life invested in this sucker.

Have I learned a lot?

Heck, yes!  How to paper piece better, set in tiny pieces without breaking out in hives, and the graceful art of realizing that finished is better than perfect (most of time time). 

Would I do it again?

Yes.  And I plan to that very thing.  Most quilters that do one Jane generally will do another one.  It truly is all about the journey with this quilt and not the destination.  My next Jane will be done in Batiks and I will only do the blocks I love.  I will enlarge them to at least 8 inches (finished) and will not do the kites on the border, but design one of my own.

Every quilt I make teaches me something....flexibility, a new technique, how to push myself out of my comfort zone, how to muster the determination to finish a complex issue.  Quilting is all about the journey of getting to the finish line.  Don't get me wrong, I love to finish projects and need to finish more of them.  But in the rush to get things done, I would be horribly ignorant if I missed the lessons the journey is trying to teach me.

Enjoy the journey....while your eyes are on the finish line.

Love and Stitches...
Sherri