OK, this is my quote of the week

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." ~ Anonymous

so yesterday I toured some galleries

Yesterday my family & I went on the once a month open gallery tour of the Paseo district, Oklahoma city.

Wow. I want a studio and a gallery!!! We were standing in one of them that was piled high with materials along with stuff for sale and my husband says, "this is what you need! get it out of our room!" Wa-la!!! I said, "Honey, please rent me a studio."

If only.

Saw tons of interesting art. Had inspiration...for paintings, not for quilts, sorry. Maybe the painting will become a quilt too. One side of my studio will be drawing/painting, and the other side quilts!

Sigh. For now, I will settle for half of the bedroom and my blog.

Fabric for Christmas

My mother-in-law gave me a gift cert. to my favorite quilt shop for Christmas. After a hurried trip one hour before it closed for the weekend, these are my choices. I think all of the red, white, and blue will be in one quilt...the red and black scotties...I'm thinking of combining with red, black, and white solid...something triangular.

Recent animal rescue

Our neighbor kids brought this one home but their mom was allergic and had an asthma attack. So I took it. Wanted to keep it of course, but DH said 3 animals in the house was enough. :-(

I did find a good cat lover home for him. He was such a sweet kitty.

Raggedy Ann Quilt

Five years ago I decided to get a sewing machine and start sewing for the first time since high school. This was my first major project: a raggedy ann quilt for my mom. Here is a picture of her puppy, Xander sitting on the bed...LOL. Anyway, I found some raggedy ann fabric, but I did a lot of drawing on many of the squares. I also had my children draw squares for it. It is a king size. When she came to see me from out of state, I had it on my bed. She came back to my room and said, "where did you get the raggedy ann quilt? " I said, "I made it. It's yours." It was so fun. Most of the squares are 12". It was my first quilt in 15 years so I was afraid to start something with smaller squares. This only took me 2 weeks to complete, so that motivated me to start more complicated quilts.

I survived my first craft fair

I didn't make all that much...sold about 1/3 of the stuff I took. I have listed the rest on ebay. I felt good though, that people might want to buy stuff I design.

art therapy

I've been thinking a lot lately about my sewing as art therapy. I started sewing 5 years ago in an attempt to fill hours that had once only been filled with work. I was a workaholic and I did not know how to do anything else with my time. When forced to resign from my full time job to save my sanity, I looked back in my life to see what I had done for "fun" before work entered. I had to look back to high school. Sewing. I decided to teach myself to make the clothes I could never figure out in Home Ec. I prayed for a sewing machine. A friend gave me one. So I bought some Sewing Patterns for Dummies & sewed Barbie clothes. When I succeeded with that, I bought a pattern for baby doll clothes. Easy. Meanwhile I sewed some straight seams and made my mom a quilt. I am still waiting for her to take a picture of that so I can post it! Anyway, I bought another pattern for Dummies and made myself a dress--out of two pieces...easy. After that I braved Simplicity, McCalls, and Butterick patterns. I can follow any pattern now. I still hate inserting zippers and setting sleeves, but I can do both well...after picking out hundreds of stitches. It's just part of the process. Seam rippers get used as much as sewing machine needles.

I suffer from diagnosed clinical depression. I had been through hundreds of hours of therapy--yes, helpful. One day I was sewing and felt a new feeling that I had not felt. After therapy, you question your feelings and want to label them. I realized it was pleasure. It had been so long since I had felt pleasure...if you have ever been depressed you understand....in sewing, creating, I found healing. I am educated--two college degrees, and have had some classes in couseling...like I said been to therapy forever...but received more healing out of sewing than anything else...art therapy I now find out it is called...I never knew much about it until I started researching it lately. Yes, sewing is my art. Sewing is my therapy.

I see a project before I start it. I don't know how to explain this. I guess artists call it inspiration or getting the muse. "I dream my painting and then paint my dream." said Vincent Van Gogh. I have a simliar process. Each baby quilt I craft is made esp. for that baby...based on what I know of the parents and/or the child. It's hard to sew for those I don't know...why I have not entered craft fairs until this week. I see the clothes I sew in my head before I make them. I usually pick fabric first and then pattern. Or I see a piece of fabric and the picture of the finished project appears in my head and then I try to find a pattern to match it. If I can't, I alter or make it without the pattern. I don't have many UFOs because I need to see completion...I worked so long in a field that didn't provide completion and satisfaction from that completion.

I dream of owning a machine quilter. Now I handquilt, tie, or machine quilt with my standard machine...very difficult with large quilts. This is usually limited to baby quilts. I usually tie the large ones I make. One of these days my garage will be turned into my studio...but my desire is not to turn it into a quilt business, but a form of art therapy.

Log Cabin Tablerunner

I couldn't figure out what to do with these sampler log cabin blocks...and they came together as this table runner. It even has a "theme." Lots of wildlife, fishing, and flowers. Bringing the outdoors right to the center of a table. Colors range from white to yellow to hues of green and blue. Some of the pieces are flannel, but most are quilter's cotton.

When Scraps/Patches take on a life of their own

Ok, so today I sat down to rotary cut some 6" squares for a rag purse and this is what happened! They just refused to be ragged or pursed, instead became a baby quilt top. The darker blue fabric has little red ladybugs all over it. It has always been a favorite...made a raggedy ann costume out of it last October..and here it has surfaced again.

My first tailored suit

No, not the first one I have owned. It's the first one I've sewn! It is unlined, and the fabric is a black and white plaid boucle'. The front of the jacket is held together with two small white ribbon ties. I have yet to insert the shoulder pads. The skirt is an a-line with a slight gather, side zipper, and wide waistband. The jacket is my most difficult sewing project to date as it had 18 pieces! However, there is a satisfaction in tailoring one's own jacket. It took several attempts and alterations to get it to fit perfectly, but I did it.

A new invention

I'm sure you've heard of "taggies." This is a quilt with taggies...what should I call it? A quaggie? a twilt??? The taggies are little ribbons sewn on the edges so babies can chew on them. This quilt is a lesson in various textures for a baby boy. The close up shows it is a rag quilt...made out of scraps of fleece. I machine quilted-in-the-ditch.

Pink and Purple Baby Quilt

I am working on this baby quilt for my mom's coworker. It is pink, purple, with some orange. The fabric has a floral or butterfly pattern. Has four inch squares with a four inch border.

Patchwork Pillow

I made this patchwork pillow for a friend's little girl's preschool naptime. It is 10 x 12.

Grounded

Ok so I've grounded myself from the fabric stores in an attempt to save money and finish some projects! I still have not put the batting and backing on the taffy(brown, pink, blue pinwheel) quilt even though I bought the stuff. I have done nothing else on the vegetable quilt. It has been the busier summer in years. Remy the puppy does take time. He expects a walk at least twice a day. :-) I can't complain. It certainly isn't hurting me to get off the couch or away from the computer. I directed Vacation Bible School in June & received fabric store gift cards and thought yeah now time to quilt. Not. Church camp came next along with a trip to the ER because of an allergic reaction to a fire ant sting. This was my second experience with fire ants. Anyone who knows me if I start to turn red in the face and swell and start panting, stab me with my Epi-Pen!