What you've all been waiting for: My first feminist rant

OK so I just sat through a conference where ALL men sat in the front. ALL men spoke.
The one woman who was given the mic was escorted to the platform (a custom I loathe).

One woman was applauded for her homemaking skills.

No, this was not a homemaking conference.

Meanwhile I came home early to work on Homeroom Mom stuff. I know. I am a walking irony.

My very very first quilt

This is the quilt I mentioned two posts below. My mom & I made this quilt when I was 5 & 6. I colored the iron-on transfers with paint in tubes (popular in the 70s I don't remember what it is called)

You can see the signature and date on one of the squares. Another shows a closeup on the patches upon patches I have done over the years to hold the quilt together. Other than coloring, I remember tying the knots as it was stretched across the living room floor. I also remember my mom waking us up in the middle of the night a few months later as she was working on another quilt. She had popped her toenail off as she moved furniture to tie another quilt. We had to get up and go with she and dad to the ER.

Aunt Linda's Quilt

I mentioned in the previous post the quilt I received on my fourth birthday from my Aunt Linda. Here it is...patched and worn, yet still in use! I can't count how many times I lay sick underneath of it, counting the patches, or marveling at the nine patch blocks. Quilts do something for the self esteem of children. No one else in the world had a quilt exactly like mine: it was made for me. I love to do the same for the children I know, as you can see by reading my blog.

Why I started quilting

My aunt Linda made me a quilt when I was 4. Patched and worn, it still keeps one of my children warm at night. I colored some pictures with fabric paint at age 5, and my mother cut up some old clothes and we made our first quilt together. It is even more worn than the other since we used old fabric as a start. I have patched it and patched it...but it is still well-loved and on the bed of my other child. I loved to sew as a child. My mom's machine broke when I was 11 or 12, and we did not have the money to buy another. I hand-sewed dolls and doll clothes until I was 12 or 13. My dad was a pastor, and one of the older ladies of our congregation took me under her wing when I was 13 and decided to teach me to quilt. She taught me hand-applique with polyester as it did not ravel on the edges. I worked on it for a while, but alas! boys began to hold more of my attention than quilting. The day before we moved to a new church when I was 15, she helped me sew my small pile of appliqued blocks to other plain blocks to make a quilt top. Using a sheet purchased at Dollar General with my hard-earned summer job money (picking vegetables in 100 degree heat), she taught me how to pin-baste the front to the back with safety pins. She gave me a lap hoop and said, "You can finish this in a month if you work on it every night." LOL!! I was 15 and had a boyfriend. I did not sit around sewing every night. This is quilt you see below that took me 15 years to hand quilt! I did not make another full quilt for 15 years...but now I take on smaller projects or hand-tie a huge quilt...My dream is to own a long armed quilting machine, but that is in the future.

A little more progress on the pinwheel

I made some progress today. Still not sure about the design.

I tried a few more color combinations...added white with brown that reminds me of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. I could call the quilt neopolitan but for the blue. What flavor is light blue? Can't be blueberry. Maybe "blue rasberry." Or maybe the blue stands for ice??? I am trying to think of a clever title for the quilt...any suggestions?


As usual Princess Marie sits on the pieces. She doesn't like it when I go on a cleaning binge like today. All of this is now put away and she has nothing but a smooth table to lie on. She prefers the mess, but alas my husband does not.

I'm not a Quilt Shop Quilter

Ok so today I visited a real quilt shop for the first time. Yes, I've been quilting forever, and yes I've been to quilt shows....but as for a formal quilt shop where they teach classes, etc...first time.

It is a beautiful shop boasting 5,000 bolts of fabric. I was disappointed. Why?

1. Fabric is $8.00-$10.00 a yard!!! I think I'm paying a lot if I splurge on $4.00 a yard!
2. Everything looked too perfect...every example looked factory-made even though I know they sew them in the work room right there. You sure wouldn't find my rag quilts made out of worn out jeans hanging in those displays.
3. I asked about classes...since I have never taken a formal class, they said I had to start with a beginning class...using a rotary cutter and sewing a 1/4" seam. I said I was sure I could do that...see I don't want to pay $50 to learn how to do something I have been doing for 5 years (rotary cutters at least...I've been sewing for 15).

In conclusion I will continue to shop at Jo-ann and Hancock clearance racks (esp. $1.00 a yard).
I will continue to quilt in my own non-perfect, homemade-looking way...and no, that shop does not know the definition of scrappy!!!! They do things well, don't get me wrong, but it's just not for me.

Chocolate & Taffy Pinwheels

This brown color reminded me of chocolate...so I mixed it with 2 pastels in a pinwheel block: pink & teal. So far no idea how far I'll go with these in size...the dream is a queen size for my bed, but we shall see.