We the People Crazy Quilt

I love my country.  I really do.  This craziness in our political leaders, though, has just got to stop.  I know everyone has their own opinions on how to do this. I also know that the stress of having a furloughed federal employee husband, who is also our sole bread winner has been very stressful, to put it mildly.  I don't claim to know much about politics, but I do know about quilting, so I decided to channel my own craziness into a quilt.

As usual, when I start a new project, I like to try out or learn a new technique.  I have been wanting to try reverse applique for a while now, so I used my red and blue scraps first to make a crazy quilt of the different states in the Union.  It's art, so I ad-libbed a bit.  Our politicians are very good at doing this.  Crazy quilts are made in exactly the same fashion, and it just seemed a perfect way to "portray" our country right now... a little bit crazy, and also a little bit (OK, maybe a lot) divided into "red" and "blue" states.  I'm a little bit crazy myself right now, so it just seemed perfect.  My opinion is that a little bit of crazy can be a good thing.  From this springs creativity, ingenuity, perseverance.  Going over that fine line, though, can be a very bad thing, and I think we're pretty much right there...

Of course our colors are red white and blue, so I found some almost white batik fabric in my stash.  I've learned that tightly woven batiks hold up better to the applique process.  I traced the outline of the United States that I had printed off, enlarged and also pieced together with paper, onto the batik fabric (did you follow that?).

I then pinned the batik on top of the crazy quilt top, both facing up, and free motion quilted just outside of the traced lines.

Now came the tedious but oh-so-fun step of cutting out along the line I drew, revealing the craziness underneath.

Then came the layering of batting and a back fabric, and the quilting.  I decided to quilt "pebbles" or people in the country part, all from a nice variegated purple thread, because we're all pretty much the same when it comes down to it.  To emphasize what this country is about, and maybe to even send out a little message of my own, I quilted the words "We the People" across the top, because this country is all about We the People, not we the politicians, or we the corporations.  Stippling and a scrappy binding finished it with the exception of one last detail.

I sewed on a button, and made a 2 sided fabric postcard sign that reads "open" on one side, and "closed" on the other.  I'm eagerly awaiting the day that I can flip the sign to open, and my husband can go back to work doing what he chose to do as a career, helping both our national forests and wild lands, and the people who use them.  These lands belong to all of us, not just 1 party.  They are important and essential, just like all federal employees and the people they serve.

Let's get on with it!!

October Goal

Truth be told, I'm down to only a few UFO's / WIP's in my sewing closet.  When I found out a long-time friend of mine has had a possible recurrence of a malignant brain tumor, I decided that this month's goal is to get a quilt made for her.  I had some of the fabric already, and a trip to a new quilt store in Hermiston, OR, The Material Girl, rounded out the collection.  She has an on-line store as well.  Lovely Shanna, from "Fiber of All Sorts" went with me, and used her talented eye for color to help me pick out a few of the teals! There's only one thing better than fabric shopping, and that's fabric shopping with a friend :-). She also gave me permission to put this in the queue of my year's "A Lovely Year of Finishes" Goals ;-).

Be sure to click on over there to see what other's are doing.

Government Furlough and New Items in my Etsy Shop

I'm afraid I haven't been doing a whole lot of sewing lately.  Our family focus has been on the Government Shut Down, as my husband's US Forest Service paycheck is our sole source of income.  He was deemed "non-essential" on Monday, and sent home.  So instead of planning for the fall prescribed burning season, which would improve forest health and mitigate wildfire danger, he's home trying to navigate the Unemployment Website.  To say we're upset would be an understatement.

Sooo.... in the spirit of trying to scrabble by, lemonade, bright side, etc, I've put together some thread racks that I'm selling in my Etsy store.  I made some for myself a year ago, and recently needed more, so when we bought the materials, we bought enough to make a few dozen, and my husband helped refine and improve them.  We'll see how it goes...

Luckily, the fires that my husband worked on in Oregon and Colorado paid well, and for this we are extremely thankful.  We'll be fine for a while.  I'm always thankful at these times that we both have strong families who may not live close, but would help if needed.  Let's all hope that Congress gets its act together and figure out a way to govern.

A Quilter's Garage Sale

Over the week-end, a local quilter decided to donate most of her large quilting stash of books and fabric to fund several 4H quilting monetary prizes at our local county fair next year.  There were more than a few other wonderful ladies who helped organize and sell too.  Any 4H kids were literally given anything they wanted from the to start a quilt.

I got there a few hours after the sale started, and despite the large amount of things that had already walked away, there was still no shortage of fabric, books and magazines.  The books were $1 each, magazines free, and the fabric priced to move quickly.  The pile of books and fabric above was $10!  I donated a bit more as well.

The ladies had organized many "grab bags", and teased that there was a few really nice pieces in each bag, but you had to buy the whole gallon zip lock bag.  I saw this purple print that I had to have.  It reminded me of the thrift store dress I recently re-purposed.  Yep, same exact print! I bought a few large cuts of fabric too.  The first picture is the fabric I wanted, the second is the grab bag fabric that I'm now determined to turn into a quilt or two! I forgot how much I love the old "dusty rose" colors that are no longer out there.  And that yellow is a small corduroy that has gone out of style and is now back again LOL!

Let me tell you, the amount of fabric there was overwhelming (even after a huge amount had already been sold).  There was an entire large table piled with just solids, one with just apparel fabric, and many more with prints and pieces.  There were over 200 books, and 2 full tables with nothing but magazines, some decades old.  My stash really doesn't need to grown any, and I realize that these yard, thrift store finds and clearance sales are my weakness, but it all goes to such a good cause, right? I guess the moral of the story is to try to use what you have and once you get to the point that you know you won't be able to, find a good place for it while you still can.

End of Summer, and Exciting News!

With my kids back in school, (finally, as they started a week ago) I'm hoping that I can get back into the blogging routine again.  I guess when your kids suddenly aren't kids anymore, you quickly realize how short of a time you have left with them in the nest, and I really want to make the most of it.  We had a really nice summer. We even managed a final camping trip in and around the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness Area, which is about 1 1/2 hours away from us.  Other than a few bow hunters, many of whom waited 15-20 years to get an elk tag here, we were the only people we saw there.

But!  I also got some exciting news.  I finally took the leap and applied for a Modern Quilt special exhibit at MQXWest that is coming up in Portland, OR, in October, and both of my quilts were accepted!  My Modern Granny and my Medical Technologist Quilt will both be there.  It's a non jurried event, which is perfect for me.  I'm hoping to at least make it to the show, and perhaps take a class. The whole process has been a learning one for me, and gives me a whole new appreciation of those quilters who do this regularly.

Finally, I recently hit the half way point on my City Sampler Quilt Along.  Here's the first 50 blocks!  By the time this quilt is finished I wouldn't even want to guess how many hours it'll have in it.  I'm hoping to make a quilt for our bed (queen, maybe King).

Mom's Undercover Music Quilt

Each August, for the last 3 years, my mom flies out here to Eastern Oregon from hot muggy Dallas, TX to see us and to escape the heat.  It's becoming a tradition to take her to see snow in August.  She loves to camp and this is also an opportunity for us to camp and travel with her.  We've been to Glacier National Park, Mt Rainier, and this year, Mt Hood.

Last time I visited her, I took a good inventory of the colors and decor of her bedroom, and started scheming out a queen-sized bed quilt to make for her to send back with her to Dallas.  She's computer savvy, so I've kept this quilt under cover (har har), as I wanted it to be a surprise.

I saw a similar quilt / pattern at our local quilt show in May, and used my EQ7 program to design it.  I used my "Tri-Recs" ruler that I won last year to make the triangle blocks.

My mom's passion is music and gardening, so I found some cream batik fabric with music notes on it, and some blue botanical fabric to match her room decor.  I also added a musical "touch" to the quilting.

I used my new "go-to" method of labeling via the binding, and even added a quote to the back binding.

I had a panel of batik snowflakes in my fabric stash that matched the quilt perfectly, and used other stash and non-stash fabric to piece together the back.

She loved it!

August Goal Finished!

My August UFO / A Lovely Year of Finishes goal was to finish this long-neglected, 13 year old, block of the month club.  I had about half of them finished, and was able to finish up the rest of them much quicker than I expected.  Even so, it just isn't my style at all, and I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with them.  But they're DONE!  I even found some of the same white fabric at Jo Ann's fabric store, and bought 2 yards to hopefully get it made into either 1 big quilt, or a few smaller ones.

I also spent most of August making a quilt for my mom, who just paid us a visit.  I'll blog about that soon.

The summer has been busy for me and my boys, and even busier for my husband, who has been on 3 large fires now, 1 in Colorado, 1 in Southern Oregon, and 1 in Central / Eastern Oregon.

We have managed a few camping trips, and I'm hoping for 1 more :-).  I hope all of you have had a wonderful summer!!