Change of Venue

Okay, so I have a tendency to get distracted midway through a project, but this is ridiculous! Just a few days into this blogging thing and I’m already making a change. I am going to keep my quilty, crafty, foodie stuff in a different blog – Piecemeal Quilts.

So please check there, just in case anyone has actually read the first few posts here.

Design-o-Rama

I’ve been helping out a local quilt shop owner with her website (since I’m sitting around the house until I find a job). I also offered to write up pattern instructions for her, since she just doesn’t have the time (and I have nothing but), and since I just LOOOVE to tell people what to do. (“Ask Me I’ll Tell You” came about for that very reason!) While I was playing on the computer this morning, waiting until she opened, I futzed a bit in EQ6. Suddenly, to my surprise (they did the Mash! – oops, sorry, free association got the better of me there), I had a truly gorgeous quilt on the screen in front of me. Hmmm. I printed it out and took it along to the quilt shop. And… (drum roll please) …she liked it! In fact, she liked it so much that she asked if I’d write up instructions for it AND make a sample. She’ll provide the fabric for the top and I’ll get the quilt back after they’re done displaying it. We need to work out financial details yet, but I’m excited about it! We’ve got a good sized show coming up in September, and I need to have it finished by then so they can kit it up. I’m going to use the In the Pink II line from Buggy Barn (Henry Glass Fabrics). Fortunately it’s a smaller quilt – 52″ square – so I shouldn’t have too much trouble finishing it in time. Waaaaahh!

Git ‘er done, part 1

I have so many projects that just need to be completed! I’m making a page with photos of them all, and I’ll blog about them individually as I have time. here’s the first one:

This is the second quilt I’ve ever made, for my aunt and uncle who are both retired from education. I started quilting nearly five years ago! The quilt has been sitting unfinished for years because of a mistake in the block placement. If you look just below left of center, you’re realize that one of the hourglass blocks is rotated 1/4 turn. At Christmastime I showed the aunt the unfinished top and told her I was making it for her. I hoped that would give me a kick in the butt to finish it, but no such luck. A couple of months ago I picked it out and sewed the square back in correctly, but I still haven’t quilted the darn thing.

Setting myself up for success

I just joined a Summer Stash Challenge hosted by Eileen’s Attic (and first spotted on crazy mom quilts), and even though I’m a little late getting started, I figure my string quilt qualifies for the challenge. I started it in July, it’s all from my stash, and maybe by joining the challenge I’ll actually finish it by the end of August (My mother says she’ll believe it when she sees it – even more incentive to get the thing finished!)

I blogged about the string quilt a bit here, but here’s an idea of how I’d like to set it:

Except, you know, without carpeting showing through. I’ll probably use white sashing, or maybe a pale aqua. Not quite sure yet.

The motherlode of quilting references

There is so much information available in cyberspace for the quilter, but where do you find it? And how do you find the really good stuff? For every really good site, there are a few dozen crappy ones. The kind that are overloaded with advertising, have only one or two actual projects, or have poor instructions. I’ve accumulated a list of links to sites with useful information. I hope this list can help beginners get started and will give some good tools to the more experienced quilters. I’ve also added the links to the sidebar for easy reference.

Block Instructions

Quilter’s Cache
Quilter’s Cache is the best block site available, bar none. Marcia Hohn has provided over 1500 blocks with detailed, illustrated instructions. She includes an illustration of what a finished quilt might look like, and the instructions are broken down into printable pages. There’s always at least one photo of a finished block, and sometimes even finished projects. Some of the blocks are traditional, while others are original designs.

Alex Anderson’s Block Party
This is a smaller collection of blocks, although many are simple line drawings. A few have simplified cutting and piecing instructions.

World Wide Quilting Page – Blocks
WWQP claims to be the oldest and largest quilting site on the web. They have some good block patterns, along with a whole lot of other useful information. It isn’t as pretty, but

McCall’s Free Quilt Block Patterns
About 200 block patterns, clearly presented. It has a nice combination of traditional block that you may recognize and variations that are little less familiar. There are a few appliqué patterns as well. The blocks are clearly labeled with their name, size, and experience level.

Full Patterns

The best place to go for full pattern instructions is to the fabric companies’ websites. It makes sense – they want you to buy their fabric, so they hire a professional to design a beautiful quilt using their fabrics. They give away the pattern, and you buy the fabric. The great thing about these patterns is that there is no advertising. The only thing they want to sell is their fabric. Some of these are PDF files, so you’ll need the current Adobe Reader. If you don’t have it, you can download it at the Adobe site. Other patterns are in HTML (regular web pages) or even Word documents. The PDF’s are great because you can save them to your computer, and look at them whenever you want. I have a folder set up for my patterns, so they’re all in one place.

Fabric Companies

Andover Fabrics Patterns
Benartex Patterns
Blank Quilting Patterns
Clothworks Textiles
Cranston Village
Fabric Freedom
Free Spirit Fabrics
Henry Glass Fabrics
Kona Bay Fabrics
Marcus Fabrics
Maywood Studio
Michael Miller Fabrics
Moda/United Notions
P&B Textiles
Quilter’s Cache
RJR Fabrics
Robert Kaufman Fabrics
South Sea Imports
Timeless Treasures

Magazines

Fons & Porter Sew Easy Lessons
Fons & Porter Free Designs
Requires subscription, but you can choose a free option. These are techniques rather than complete projects. It includes everything from half square triangles to binding to paper piecing.

Quilts With Style
Requires subscription, but you can choose a free option. Small selection of projects.

McCall’s Quilting
This site has a fantastic collection of quilting info, including blocks, full patterns, techniques, lessons – unfortunately, it’s such an unassuming looking page that it’s easy to miss the vast quantity of links. Here’s a hint – look at the tiny italics on the left side of the page. Those are all links to additional pages!

Other Resources

The Quilter Community
This site bills itself as an online magazine, and it has a nice selection of both blocks and full projects.

Connecting Threads free patterns
Connecting Threads free 9″ quilt blocks
Connecting Threads is one of my favorite quilting book resources. They sell books, patterns, and their own line of threads and fabrics.

EZ Quilting
There are many projects here – unfortunately it’s simply a page of links to their projects without any pictures for reference. You have to click into each project to see what it is. If you have the time, you may find something you love.

Debbie Mumm Projects
This link takes you to the current projects page, but be sure to click on the Project Archives link at the bottom. This site isn’t just about quilting – she has all sorts of creative projects, including scrapbooking, home decor, and other crafts. The Archives page doesn’t have photos, so you have to click into them to see the project. However, the are well organized and the titles are fairly descriptive.

Local celebrity

One of my favorite quilt shops, Life’s A Stitch Quilt Shoppe, is a featured shop in Better Homes & Gardens Quilt Sampler Magazine! Okay, so this is somewhat old news, but hey, it’s a new blog. And it’s important stuff! Pat Riley taught me to quilt, and she’s one of those people – you know, the ones who go out of their way to help, who make you comfortable when you’re not sure what you’re doing, who truly enjoy the quilting process and can’t help but share it with the people around them. It stands to reason that I’d want to do a little mountaintop proclamation for her. So if anyone out there in blog-land is reading this, check out this article – or better yet, buy the incredible Circle of Scraps quilt kit featured in the article.

Fabric addiction

I’ve been quilting for about five years, although I’ve been addicted to fabric for as long as I can remember. As a child, I followed my mom down the aisles at JoAnn Fabrics, arms extended, hands trailing through the assorted textures. Every once in a while I’d squinch up my face and shake and rub my hands to get the nasty feeling of polyester off, but mostly I just floated and dreamed of all the pretty things the fabric could become.

I first seriously thought about quilting about 18 years ago, going so far as to buy fabrics that would make an interesting quilting. It was the cheap stuff, because that’s what I could afford. I still have a couple of pieces including one with a small frog print, and someday I will make my “Frog Prints” quilt. I’m collecting other froggy fabrics, not because I particularly like frogs, but because I want to make a quilt with that name. Names are oddly important to me.

Now my fabric collection has expanded – exploded, even – into a stash that I’m simultaneously embarrassed by and proud of. On the one hand, I could make enough quilts to cover every person in my most extended family several times over. On the other, I have no control. It’s a shameful thing. Truly, it’s an addiction.

This photo was taken a year ago, and it’s increased even further – I have probably 20% MORE fabric now. I have managed to control myself since The Incident, and I haven’t purchased a single piece of fabric in almost two months. I saw a great acronym for this – it’s a STABLE, or STash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy.

Strings Attached

My most recent quilting project is a string quilt, using 8″ finished blocks pieced on muslin foundation. The blocks will be combined into diamonds consisting of four blocks, set on point, joined with white sashing. I may include red cornerstones or I may just stick with the sashing.

This is a scrappy project, using a variety of bright fabrics. I started out using actual scraps but I found that I didn’t have near enough. So off to the stash I went and I lopped off strips of varying widths. It’s actually surprisingly easy to do, and it requires little thought. I just zip through the strips as I’m watching TV (well, mostly listening to TV). I have 39 blocks so far and I need a total of 96 to make a full size quilt. I’m not sure if I’ll use batting when I quilt it because of the extra layer of muslin. It may turn out to be just a light summer coverlet.

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

I thought a stew made in a pressure cooker was particularly appropriate, considering the pressure I’ve been under lately. Don’t be afraid of pressure cookers – they’re a fantastic way to get food on the table quickly, with minimal effort. If you have a newer cooker you won’t have as much noise to deal with, and you can feel relatively safe. The one I use is probably as old as I am (40), so just to be sure, I always leave the kitchen while it’s cooking. I can’t help it, I’m nervous that way.

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

1 pound beef stew meat, or any inexpensive cut of beef, cut into 1″ cubes
Salt & pepper
Flour
3 medium onions cut into eighths
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 1/2 cups beef broth
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups carrots, peeled and cut into 1″ pieces
4-5 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1″ pieces
3 stalks celery, cut into 1″ pieces

Season meat generously with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Don’t shake it off too carefully – the flour will help thicken the stew. Add a bit of canola oil to the pressure cooker and brown the meat, then remove and set aside. Add the onions (and a little more oil, if necessary) and cook until they begin to soften. Add garlic and cook for another minute, until fragrant. Add one cup of the broth and stir, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. The flour will thicken the broth a bit. Add the remaining broth and stir. Stir in all remaining ingredients.

Put lid on pressure cooker and seal. Increase heat to high and cook at 10 pounds of pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool until pressure reduces to 0 – the new pots will not let you open them until it’s safe. Remove the lid and check the consistency. If necessary, thicken with a little cornstarch mixed into cold water.

The saga begins…

So, quick summary of the past month and a half:

Office manager for an electrical contractor for six years, overwhelmed, under supported, struggling with undiagnosed depression and bad financial decisions by the owners, makes a bad decision herself and is summarily fired. Bye bye, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Here’s your stuff. Get. No severance pay, no unused holiday pay (forget that I haven’t been able to take a decent holiday in forever because I WAS the office), not even a certainty that I’ll be able to collect unemployment. Good thing I live with my mom.

Obviously it’s more complicated than that, but fool that I am, I still feel a lot of loyalty to that damn company and I can’t in good conscience share – even anonymously – further details. Suffice to say that I was not entirely exempt of responsibility. Still, neither was the company.

For a month before I was fired, I was suffering physical symptoms of anxiety. All the fun stuff – heart palpitations, inability to catch my breath, nausea, inability to focus, headaches, throat swelling. When I was fired I thought that would eliminate the anxiety. After all, it was their problem now. It didn’t go away, though, so I saw a doctor. Last time I blamed my physical illness on stress, it ended up being a bad gall bladder. I didn’t want another major health problem to slip by until after my insurance ran out. The doctor said yes, anxiety, but more – situational depression. Oh crap. So I went home and looked up the symptoms of depression. Hmmm. Sounds familiar. Sounds like stuff I’ve been struggling with for a couple of years. Lovely.

The doc recommended I see a counselor, which I have been. I also spoke with my aunt, who has been even more helpful than the counselor. I’ve always had difficulty doing new things, meeting new people, putting myself out there. I don’t like to be afraid, to feel stupid, to be wrong. If I’m in a position of power, I’m great with people. I love public speaking. I enjoy teaching. I like knowing “everything.” However, plop me down in the middle of a social setting where I have no particular expertise, with a bunch of people I don’t know, and I’ll do my best impression of wallpaper. Everything I do, I do well. Sounds great, until you realize that’s because I choose not to do anything that I don’t do well.

I’ve been creating challenges for myself. The first was a week or two after the termination. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t reason, I was afraid of making mistakes – so I gave myself the task of designing and sewing a complex quilt block. I named it Anxiety. Maybe it’s been designed before and has a different name, but I’m proud of it.

It was a breakthrough for me. I still spent a lot of time reading, but I also started sewing again. Being productive helped me start getting my head together. I was able to work on my resume and cover letters, a major first step in finding a new job.

Unfortunately, I’m still jobless. I’ve submitted about 20 resumes and had several interviews, but nothing has come through yet. It’s scary because I still don’t know if I’m going to get unemployment. I hated the idea of it (I’ve never collected unemployment before), but I’m in a position where it’s necessary. It’s either that or reduce my job requirements drastically. I mean, we’re talking fast food here. Considering that the last time I worked in fast food, 20 years ago, I found maggots, you can understand why I’d really rather not go there.

So there it is, the sad chapter in my life story. I believe that it will turn for the better soon. It’s gotta.