Early work and shopping

All my labels are made.  All my quilt bags are made and labeled.  And, all the muslin covers for my labels are made and sewn on.  One of the quilts had been rolled on a noodle for almost a year.  We hung it, but it had a "wave" where the noodle had curved and one side had gotten stretched a little, so I spritzed it good and pinned it to the floor nice and tight and blocked that wave right out.  When I took it up and hung it again, it hangs flat, like it's supposed to.  Beautiful! 

I mentioned last week that I would try to post some of my early work this week.  My earliest work was all machine pieced and hand quilted.  That's the way I thought it should be done.  It's the way my mother, my grandmother and my great-grandmother made quilts.  It's the way things were.   

But, later, I decided it was okay to machine quilt.  And, I've done some beautiful work and some of it is going to be judged this week.  But, before that, I did simple outline quilting.  That's how I learned to control the fabric in the machine and how I learned to quilt with a walking foot. 

This was the first kit quilt I ever made.  This is long ago (and unlabeled).  I remember being so excited about ordering the kit...and how disappointed I was when it got here.  I ordered the kit from Connecting Threads based on a picture in one of their booklets.  When the kit got here, there were these beautiful batiks, which were all the rage at the time, tho they seem to have cooled a bit now, and the instructions for how to cut the fabrics and make the sections.  But, nothing to tell me which fabric went where.  And, I wanted to make exactly the quilt from the picture. 

That's when I learned that there's more to quilting than reproducing the pretty pictures.  There's art to it as well.  And, for all the messes and mistakes in this little, simple kit, there's also a beginning to the art that would become my quilting. 

This one came in the same envelope.  This one was for Rob.  It's called Mola Lizard and I think was supposed to be part of a series, but this is the only one we bought. 

This one has hung in our room, since it was made.  Far from perfect.  Very far.  My first raw edge fusible applique, which is harder than people make it sound.  Again, batiks in bold colors.  The only thing I would do differently now would be the color of the lizard itself.  I would have used more of a light olive than that mottled blue and yellow. The blue and yellow don't read as a color and I think the lizard should have been its own color. 

I don't buy many kits anymore, although I can't resist a good pattern.  I learned that I could pick fabrics as well as any kit designer (better than some).  And, when I pick the fabrics, good or bad, it's a reflection of me and how I see the quilt.  The owner of my LQS thinks I only make dark quilts...boy is she going to be surprised at the show this year. 

Chapter 2:  polyester, Polyester, POLYESTER

Remember that I was shopping for dress slacks this weekend.  We went to some of Austin's nicer clothing stores...I thought.  I was disappointed at the first.  I actually left the second store feeling angry.  75% polyester, 20% lycrose, 5% spandex is NOT what you make dress slacks out of.  Someone please tell the buyer at Nordstrom...it might explain why they were at the Nordstrom clearance store???  Because everybody knows that's not dress slacks and nobody is going to pay $175 for them, or even $75 on clearance.  They looked and felt like those slinky spandex yoga pants and I wouldn't be caught dead, sweating in them outside a gym.  So, after the second store, I looked at Rob and said "I want to go to Goodwill.  Not our local one.  I want to go to the one in the really nice downtown Austin neighborhood."  And, I got 2 pair of lovely, lined, wool slacks, one in grey and one in blue and 5 shirts and a Keurig K cut coffee maker for $97, cuz that's how we roll. 

I came home and re-hemmed them, because I know how to do that.  And I washed them in Woolite and hung them to dry, because I know how to do that.  And I'm going to do my own steam ironing to put the creases back in.  Because I know how to do that, too.  So there, polyester clothes designers!

Class is not the same thing as fad.

Oh, and to the people that buy those polyester clothes; grow up and buy a damn iron. 

Everybody have a great Monday.  I wanted to spend time quilting, but unfortunately, we are hunting a bad smell that really became prevalent last week when the humidity was 127% and lifting a finger caused a sweat.  We had just cleaned the carpets.  This weekend, we washed the dogs.  Then, we washed the cushions off the chair that one of the dogs lays in all the time.  We keep it covered with a quilt and wash the quilt regularly, but we needed to get deeper than that.  And, we will keep cleaning.  Until we find and eliminate it.  Because we know how to do that, too.

Lane