Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[strollingbones]

so how does one buy a quilt from ya? or do you just do it for charity and all.....

 

[freedombecki]

Strollingbones, thanks for the kind compliment. Early in around 2000-1 I succumbed to a terrible disease called Fibromyalgia. I went from making 50 large quilts a year (probably more) to one or two a year, some years, to completing 36 soldier quilts over the next 5 years, 30 of which I designed, quilted, and bound, 4 that were donated already quilted, 2 tops, oh, I don't know. Sometimes I'd have a stack of quilts wondering, "How am I going to do this?" In the 8 months of cold weather in Wyoming, I only finished 1 or 2 quilts, sometimes less. In the warmer months, I could eke out one every other week in good times if motivated by less pain. My disease started destroying my business, so I'd only go to work on days in which pain was controlled. I've lost muscle tone, much to my dismay, but I'm still able to make small tops for the quilter's closet. I don't know anyone who could keep up with my prolific output of quilts back in my good days, because I had factory experience, excellent classes in tailoring and quilting by world-famous quilters, and I wrote the manuscripts for 11 books and copyrighted 4 of those and created a number of patterns for selling in the shop. Fibro took all that away from me. I was sure coming back to Texas would eliminate a lot of problems, but I didn't realize the hot weather can also be tiring, but not in the same way as cold weather. I had other health problems too, that evaporated when my doctor caught 2 bad parathyroids on a scan and sent me to an endocrinologist and surgeon. I'm ok now, but pain control medicine often makes me make mistakes, and some days 3/4ths of my time is spent ripping out mindless mistakes, junctures that didn't jive, and small quilt halves sewn upside down to each other.

The only reason I got to posting quilt parts I did online was so it would make mrs freedom zombie clean up her error act. It worked.

You always have to play an angle when you have this fibro crud and its ugly sister syndromes, of which I acquired 11 unwelcome accompaniants that appear sometimes in marching order--when one leaves, another one pops to the surface. None of my friends "get it," one family member isn't speaking to me because she knows someone who has a less aggressive case, possibly less sidekicks, so I bumble and stumble around, hermiting myself to the house and trying to do one community service that in turn makes me forget about pain in the best way I know. I don't know why it is, but in the last 15 years, I had to cancel more quiltmaking offers than I care to think about, sometimes after I started but could not carry the project to completion after fixing the top for free. I finally gave up on trying to do other people's paid work, since I can't carry it to a completed work. The only thing I can really finish lately is potholders and pillows for nursing homes. I tried to do bibs, but my practice really is limited to doing little things at this point. I used to not take so much medicine so I could have my mind as clear as a bell, but it resulted in me complaining out loud too much. My case forces me to deal an equal measure of medicine in a nonexcessive but adequate amount to prevent the pain from reaching the medulla. Once pain starts, my day is over, because fibro pain is like a fire. Once it starts, no amount of medicine taken that day quells it. The panacea is to get the pain before it spreads like a wildfire. Also, if I stay away from groups, restaurants, traffic hours in discount houses, etc, I don't get one of fibro's worst sisters: a failed immune system. If I go somewhere and I pick up any amount of germs, I have a raging case of whatever is going around. If it's a 3-day cold, my fibro takes it under her wing and invites her to stay a fortnight or longer. Flu is a half-a-year ordeal, so I take the shot and am only tormented for a week. I'm allergic to tapwater, lemon juice, and raw pineapple. All 3 cause a bleeding blister on touch throughout my gi tract. It isn't pretty when I am eating a fresh fruit salad and run into an unseen bit of raw pineapple. I can't eat mashed potatoes, cake, or pastas made with tap water. I'm a friggin mess.

But I have a happy heart because I can do one thing for my fellows upon this earth--make quilt tops for needy kids at the abuse shelter, and still make a couple of soldier wheelchair quilt tops if someone else ties or quilts them. If I try to do that task, I'm in bed for 2 weeks after 4 hours of work. It takes 8 hours to machine quilt a small quilt. I had to quit that with the onset of parathyroidism, and since then, I have one more hurdle--balancing calcium out when I'm allergic to every known calcium supplement out there, and I've tried them all. Ptooey. No wonder my cousin won't speak to me, It's all I can do to "get it." Why would any intellectual perons believe such a yarn as you just heard? lol That's what I get for only showing my face when I feel like it which is less occasionally with each passing year.

In summary, I don't dare do quilting commercially anymore. It fries my electrodes.

 

[strollingbones]

i am sorry you have such a burden to carry....

the quilts are beautiful...

 

[koshergrl]

So is the stitching. My mother taught me to embroider when I was 7, I've been doing it off and on ever since. I started (and still have) a quilt top somewhere with panels stamped and stitched in blue...I can't remember the pattern, either butterflies or roses, but I've moved so many times since starting it I can't remember the last I saw it.

I just finished a big comforter for my granddaughter, done in shades of brown, queen sized with four 23x23" blocks across and down, not very complicated and only took a couple of days, so she'll have it for Christmas. I love the complicated quilts, I love to work them (I'm working on one now I've been working a couple of years) but I'd really like the kids to get them sometime before they've got grandkids of their own, and with two little ones and work I just don't have time. So now I'm into the big block comforters. As soon as I'm done channel stitching the horse one, I'm onto another one for my daughter.

 

[freedombecki]

i am sorry you have such a burden to carry....

the quilts are beautiful...

Thanks, strollingbones. By keeping my life on the upbeat, it helps what medicine I am forced to take work more efficiently. And I used to not be able to tolerate errors, so I made few mistakes. Now that it's hand-over-fist error, the meds make it not bother me to spend an hour with the ripper now and then. Also, it seems I am more willing to postpone the hurry-up stuff and accept the drudgery as a more acceptable fate than it used to seem. It also makes me a better driver than I used to be. If I fail to take my medicine at night, it feels like my muscles are being torn out one by one all over my back. But if I do, I sleep like a baby and get a full night's sleep and am refreshed in the morning. Untreated fibromyalgia sufferers tend to have what is called "unrefreshing sleep." Which means a lot of tossing and turning, and when the alarm tolls, you feel like you haven't had sleep for a week. 80% of us have moderate to harsh sleep issues. I don't know why a small percentage get a free ticket on sleep. Maybe they're the ones with the light cases. Research seems to verify that the amount of sleep bears directly on how well your body recuperates for the day ahead. No sleep is intolerable and brings out the worst in your apothecary issues.

Right now, my happy heart makes dealing with this stuff not so bad. Hope you will drop by with a picture of any quilts you see you like. Also, I'm still a good trouble shooter for the time being. If there's something you don't understand in quilt construction, chances are I can give you three ways to shatter the problem and make it right and when I tell people why, it sticks to their memories. I don't know why, I just have that effect on my students from the get go. Must be my schoolmarm blood. Lot of those in my family line.

 

[freedombecki]

So is the stitching. My mother taught me to embroider when I was 7, I've been doing it off and on ever since. I started (and still have) a quilt top somewhere with panels stamped and stitched in blue...I can't remember the pattern, either butterflies or roses, but I've moved so many times since starting it I can't remember the last I saw it.

I just finished a big comforter for my granddaughter, done in shades of brown, queen sized with four 23x23" blocks across and down, not very complicated and only took a couple of days, so she'll have it for Christmas. I love the complicated quilts, I love to work them (I'm working on one now I've been working a couple of years) but I'd really like the kids to get them sometime before they've got grandkids of their own, and with two little ones and work I just don't have time. So now I'm into the big block comforters. As soon as I'm done channel stitching the horse one, I'm onto another one for my daughter.

Wow, a queen sized comforter is a huge job and requires a very strong person to make. What an amazing Christmas present you are giving. Hope if it is possible you will share a picture of your quilts and comforters as you do them. Then you will have in addition to your files at home, an online proof.

More often than I care to remember, I'd be contacted by local insurance companies of some person who had such-and-such a quilt, not sure of the name, not sure of the size, no pictoral proof, the store receipt burned in the house fire for which someone didn't put their house pictures in a safe deposit box somewhere or left a copy with their will attorneys. There are few people who are qualified to do a professional appraisals, but the EGA (Embroidery Guild of America) certifies quilt appraisers through their educational program, and I'm wondering if the American Quilter's Society trains or has a list of the EGA-trained appraisers. Who knows? They may have their own appraisal school in Paducah, Kentucky. If not, there are two other contacts I know of who would know appraisers--The American Folk Museum (of which I posted the several YouTube of their recent Red and White Quilt show of Joanna's 191-quilt collection) in New York City and the Shelburne Museum of Folk Art in Shelburne, Vermont. There's one other museum in the state of Massachusetts, and possibly one in Virginia, though I'm not really sure about the second one being a large enough entity to have much to do with quilt appraisers. You should have your quilts appraised if they are complex ones and you spent a year of after hours work on them. There is also a Quilt Registry of American Quilts through the above-mentioned EGA, and their absolute dedication to excellence in the needle arts is peerless. Unfortunately, becoming a certified appraiser is quite an expensive ordeal that requires travel to their offices (wherever that is), so we wound up having no appraisers in Wyoming, but one Guild member who had credits and could help certified appraisers. I'm not sure exactly what her credentials were, but she was the best crewel embroiderer in the state, of that I'm certain. She did 5 of the 24 dining chair in the governor's mansion in a matter of a year. She flat out got to it and finished whatever she was working on as if her life depended on it. That's the kind of dedication those EGA women have. They're something else twice. Seeing Sunshine's lovely miniatures reminded me of them.

If you have a home scanner, please place your blue embroidery (when you find it) on a screen and show us, won't you? Be sure you save copies of your work in a bank safe deposit box so you will have proof of your labor and the work itself, no matter how little you think it worth, it could be a lot more valuable if you took the time to buy from a seller who kept a collection of the fabrics either in charm square manufacturer's packs, half-yard or quarter-yard packs, or if you just picked from fresh bolts of a collection. Those quilts become sought-after by mavens that some collectors are who know the textile industry inside and out. Just trying to quadruple the value of your quilts, not trying to lecture already-smart people. I go way back to the 60s in my quilting and textile experience. And I'm no Barbara Brackman, much less a Jinny Beyer, but I knows me threads. And I know what makes a quilt steal people's hearts straight out of their chests. I had the unique experience of the state fair superintendent telling me that my Southwest Quilt, (which won the Best of Show award in 1993 at the Wyoming State fair) brought the men in to see the quilt. She said that the cowboys had never to her knowledge ever come in to see a quilt on purpose, but all of them did on that count. I almost fainted, and my knees went weak when she told me that.

My secret? Well, one day a salesman brought in a bunch of samples, and I was interested in making a southwest quilt, I said, I did. After looking at his samples of gaudy reds and blatant yellows, I wanted to throw up right there on the spot. I politely thanked him and told him that was not exactly what I remembered as a young girl who actually lived in the southwest for a year, not much more than 40 miles from the border of Mexico.

I recalled the spacious atmospheric effect of colors caused by dusty hazes on the desert, and how every day you needed a clothes change because the dust collected on your clothing, too. After a while of living there, I just got used to seeing atmospheric effects everywhere. I knew that's what I saw, and it was true. You saw a lot of that when you were in the mountains in Wyoming if you travelled through them from one town to the next (which were 20 miles apart or more in most places in the state). So I went about finding my dusty rainbow colors, and I found them in the fabric samples of Jinny Beyer's collection of basics. I accumulated all of them, then parsed out the dusty ones, which she is a master of making them so beautiful they're still as relevant to nature today as they were when they first came out in the 1980s through a company named RJR. I picked 2 shades of each color of the rainbow in her collection--a deep dark and a near-hue shade. I picked her cream-colored marble as a background, and I just couldn't find the right shade to separate the cool from the warm colors, so I had no choice but to break the romance and add a cool fawn brown mottled leaf print by Hoffman of California fabrics. Then I proceded through the next year to design, hold classes, and build my southwest quilt and write a little notebook for other quilters who I was teaching, so they wouldn't miss anything. To my shock and horror, a couple of them picked stuff just like that salesman sample book. I big my lower lip and watched my designs come off the assembly lines looking almost as dismal as those heinous fabrics, and others were well-stated. A couple of the artists I was teaching used some of my techniques, but not all my patterns, but it was fun having the privilege of their association throughout the process. I was still sewing the last binding in place on our way to the state fair that summer on the day you brought your quilt entries. I put the last stitch on as we drove into Douglas, WY. I was hoping I would at least get an honorable mention placard if it didn't win a ribbon. But I was walking on air because after one long year, it was actually done. I dropped it off, and we turned around and went back home. We drove back the next day for the judging, and I got to hear the judge critique 200 quilts and wallhangings, and her words could've curled anyone's toenails, because back then, people brought whatever they did, with or without teaching, and some of it was well, er, ah, ahem, well, they coulda been better. The judge took one look at my quilt, and she started testing the stitches, and when they proved true, set it aside with 2 other quilts. By the time they got through announcing white, yellow, green, pink, red, and blue ribbons for all 12 categories of quilts (embroidered, appliqued, mixed, pieced, etc.) my quilt didn't win anything. I thought, "oh, well, I tried." Then they announced there was one other quilt--Best of Show, and when they showed my quilt, people cheered. I had tears rolling down both sides of my face. Then the lecture. The judge justified their decision by saying how much they liked the idea someone did all the designs from scratch, as did many of our mothers from the east, the unusual approach to sets and sashings, yada yada... But the best words came from the Superintendent when she told me how much the cowboys liked the quilt, because a lot of them were from that part of the world that extends from hundreds of miles of America's southern border to the Yellowstone Park. It was those atmospheric colors I knew to be true to the southwest that gave that quilt its soul. It also felt pretty good, because it gave me a credential I wouldn't have otherwise had in writing my little obscure applque books, books that hardly ever crossed state lines, but often did. Unfortunately, quilters tend to buy more books than they ever finish the quilts therein, but that book took 100 pages or more due to the need to put applique patterns over a light box due to my techniques, plus the second edition had separate instructions for wallhangings to king-sized quilts. I spent all my time that year doing patterns, teaching people how to, making corrections and refinements in the procedures part, but the patterns remained pretty much the same.

What's my point? I don't know. My fibro is having a field day today getting off on a tangent. Sorry for so much yakking today. I was late taking my medicine last night, and I'm usually over the silly stuff by breakfast.

 

[freedombecki]

My aunt drove a 55 'Chevy back when I was growing up, and I loved going for a ride in that pretty pink and gray car of hers with my cousins and brother. One of the Tsunami quilts was made from a quilt top I made celebrating that nifty car color scheme. I just wanted to add my little two cents' worth before leaving. You can get color schemes from everywhere. This one came from the love my aunt had for her extended family and my mother and she grew closer as they grew older:

 

[Sunshine]

My aunt drove a 55 'Chevy back when I was growing up, and I loved going for a ride in that pretty pink and gray car of hers with my cousins and brother. One of the Tsunami quilts was made from a quilt top I made celebrating that nifty car color scheme. I just wanted to add my little two cents' worth before leaving. You can get color schemes from everywhere. This one came from the love my aunt had for her extended family and my mother and she grew closer as they grew older:

I used to date a guy who drove one that color, except his was a 57 Chevy!

 

[Sunshine]

I have a maple leaf quilt top my mother put together from my dress scraps. I've never quilted it, but since my SIL is from Canada would really like to get it done for him and my daughter. Right now, it's really hard to know if I will have the time to finish any of my projects or not as the doctors painted such a grim picture of my illness. Also, have to keep working as long as possible to keep the insurance going, so time is an issue on two fronts. On a positive note, I have reread the only two novels I had planned on rereading before I die. Now, if I can just get the updates finished on my house, I can settle into doing some quilting and writing and hopefully some painting as well. After Christmas when I am off for a little vacation, I will see if I can locate that top and post a picture. I will also look for the only one I have that my grandmother made. I think it is ugly and no one else wanted it, but at least I got one. Also, my mother made me a 'drunkard's path' quilt when I was in high school. I wore that one out. May still have it just because, but it isn't usable any longer as it would disintegrate when washed it is so worn.

 

[Sunshine]

Strollingbones, thanks for the kind compliment. Early in around 2000-1 I succumbed to a terrible disease called Fibromyalgia. I went from making 50 large quilts a year (probably more) to one or two a year, some years, to completing 36 soldier quilts over the next 5 years, 30 of which I designed, quilted, and bound, 4 that were donated already quilted, 2 tops, oh, I don't know. Sometimes I'd have a stack of quilts wondering, "How am I going to do this?" In the 8 months of cold weather in Wyoming, I only finished 1 or 2 quilts, sometimes less. In the warmer months, I could eke out one every other week in good times if motivated by less pain. My disease started destroying my business, so I'd only go to work on days in which pain was controlled. I've lost muscle tone, much to my dismay, but I'm still able to make small tops for the quilter's closet. I don't know anyone who could keep up with my prolific output of quilts back in my good days, because I had factory experience, excellent classes in tailoring and quilting by world-famous quilters, and I wrote the manuscripts for 11 books and copyrighted 4 of those and created a number of patterns for selling in the shop. Fibro took all that away from me. I was sure coming back to Texas would eliminate a lot of problems, but I didn't realize the hot weather can also be tiring, but not in the same way as cold weather. I had other health problems too, that evaporated when my doctor caught 2 bad parathyroids on a scan and sent me to an endocrinologist and surgeon. I'm ok now, but pain control medicine often makes me make mistakes, and some days 3/4ths of my time is spent ripping out mindless mistakes, junctures that didn't jive, and small quilt halves sewn upside down to each other.

The only reason I got to posting quilt parts I did online was so it would make mrs freedom zombie clean up her error act. It worked.

You always have to play an angle when you have this fibro crud and its ugly sister syndromes, of which I acquired 11 unwelcome accompaniants that appear sometimes in marching order--when one leaves, another one pops to the surface. None of my friends "get it," one family member isn't speaking to me because she knows someone who has a less aggressive case, possibly less sidekicks, so I bumble and stumble around, hermiting myself to the house and trying to do one community service that in turn makes me forget about pain in the best way I know. I don't know why it is, but in the last 15 years, I had to cancel more quiltmaking offers than I care to think about, sometimes after I started but could not carry the project to completion after fixing the top for free. I finally gave up on trying to do other people's paid work, since I can't carry it to a completed work. The only thing I can really finish lately is potholders and pillows for nursing homes. I tried to do bibs, but my practice really is limited to doing little things at this point. I used to not take so much medicine so I could have my mind as clear as a bell, but it resulted in me complaining out loud too much. My case forces me to deal an equal measure of medicine in a nonexcessive but adequate amount to prevent the pain from reaching the medulla. Once pain starts, my day is over, because fibro pain is like a fire. Once it starts, no amount of medicine taken that day quells it. The panacea is to get the pain before it spreads like a wildfire. Also, if I stay away from groups, restaurants, traffic hours in discount houses, etc, I don't get one of fibro's worst sisters: a failed immune system. If I go somewhere and I pick up any amount of germs, I have a raging case of whatever is going around. If it's a 3-day cold, my fibro takes it under her wing and invites her to stay a fortnight or longer. Flu is a half-a-year ordeal, so I take the shot and am only tormented for a week. I'm allergic to tapwater, lemon juice, and raw pineapple. All 3 cause a bleeding blister on touch throughout my gi tract. It isn't pretty when I am eating a fresh fruit salad and run into an unseen bit of raw pineapple. I can't eat mashed potatoes, cake, or pastas made with tap water. I'm a friggin mess.

But I have a happy heart because I can do one thing for my fellows upon this earth--make quilt tops for needy kids at the abuse shelter, and still make a couple of soldier wheelchair quilt tops if someone else ties or quilts them. If I try to do that task, I'm in bed for 2 weeks after 4 hours of work. It takes 8 hours to machine quilt a small quilt. I had to quit that with the onset of parathyroidism, and since then, I have one more hurdle--balancing calcium out when I'm allergic to every known calcium supplement out there, and I've tried them all. Ptooey. No wonder my cousin won't speak to me, It's all I can do to "get it." Why would any intellectual perons believe such a yarn as you just heard? lol That's what I get for only showing my face when I feel like it which is less occasionally with each passing year.

In summary, I don't dare do quilting commercially anymore. It fries my electrodes.

I'm sure you have tried everything, but I will throw this out anyway. When I get the fibro patient who is depressed, I always use Effexor to treat the depression. For some odd reason, it seems to help the fibro. Also, you may have tried Cymbalta. I have a lot of chronic pain patients on that. Sometimes they get irritated and stop taking it because they say it isn't working. But after a few weeks they are in such torment they are begging me to help them get back on it. Perception can be a weird thing.

There are some theories about fibro that are interesting. One is that the spinal colum lumen where the spinal cord resides is too small, causing pressure on the spinal cord itself. This would explain the generalized pain syndrome. I know it is treated by rheumatologists, but I personally think it is a central nervous system problem particularly since the antidepressants help with the pain. BUT, it's still a mystery. Some doctors I've worked with say it sounds like 'somatoform pain disorder' from the DSM-IV and due entirely to psychological stress. Those doctors won't even try to work with the patient. But there are several psych meds that actually are healing to the nerves themselves and those particular drugs do give some relief, which IMO, indicates it ismore than just a neurosis. I have had osteo arthritis in my spine since I was 40 which causes the same kind of pain syndrome as fibro. But I know it isn't fibro.

 

[freedombecki]

I have a maple leaf quilt top my mother put together from my dress scraps. I've never quilted it, but since my SIL is from Canada would really like to get it done for him and my daughter. Right now, it's really hard to know if I will have the time to finish any of my projects or not as the doctors painted such a grim picture of my illness. Also, have to keep working as long as possible to keep the insurance going, so time is an issue on two fronts. On a positive note, I have reread the only two novels I had planned on rereading before I die. Now, if I can just get the updates finished on my house, I can settle into doing some quilting and writing and hopefully some painting as well. After Christmas when I am off for a little vacation, I will see if I can locate that top and post a picture. I will also look for the only one I have that my grandmother made. I think it is ugly and no one else wanted it, but at least I got one. Also, my mother made me a 'drunkard's path' quilt when I was in high school. I wore that one out. May still have it just because, but it isn't usable any longer as it would disintegrate when washed it is so worn.

Sunshine, that is exactly the picture my baby sister's doctors painted for her 5 years ago. She had smoked for 30 years or more and had a kind of thyroid cancer that's tough to get at. He sent her home with a warning to get her affairs in order and pick out a plot because she had 2 to 6 months. I don't know which was worse, her sickness or her worried state. Her father-in-law insisted that she be treated by the #1 cancer curers in America. When she went there, they told her forget about her other doctor's dire predictions, sent her to Galveston for chemo, rest on the beach, where she went to classes on nutrition and creating new health. She renewed her faith, too. Right now, she still has COPD and allergies, but I came home to Texas to be with her in her last years. It looks like That is not the case. She lives a reasonably good life at this time, and we're working through her arthritic issues this month. She's following doctor's orders, and she makes time for making things for her church bazaar. I am now confident she will continue to get better with me here to give her a hug now and then. Here's a hug for you <<<hug>>> and the address of onr og America's top successful fighters: Cancer Treatment and Cancer Research - MD Anderson Cancer Center Of course, I may be stupid and that may not be your problem, but if it is, do not put off making an appointment. They've pulled thousands of people back who thought their life was nearly over, just like my sister who was starting to resign herself to an ultimate fate 5 years ago. I really don't do that much for her, I'm just a lot closer, and I'm usually feeling ten times better than I was back in really cold country with help I've gotten from good old country style doctors here. Well, she's not a good old boy, but my physician really helped me out with pain management for my little problem that's not near as bad as yours sounds.

Regardless, you have my prayers for recuperation and time and good feelings enough to make as many quilts and objects d'art as pleases you.

<<< more hugs >>>

Make that appointment for the center nearest you right away, okay?

​

 

[Sunshine]

I have a maple leaf quilt top my mother put together from my dress scraps. I've never quilted it, but since my SIL is from Canada would really like to get it done for him and my daughter. Right now, it's really hard to know if I will have the time to finish any of my projects or not as the doctors painted such a grim picture of my illness. Also, have to keep working as long as possible to keep the insurance going, so time is an issue on two fronts. On a positive note, I have reread the only two novels I had planned on rereading before I die. Now, if I can just get the updates finished on my house, I can settle into doing some quilting and writing and hopefully some painting as well. After Christmas when I am off for a little vacation, I will see if I can locate that top and post a picture. I will also look for the only one I have that my grandmother made. I think it is ugly and no one else wanted it, but at least I got one. Also, my mother made me a 'drunkard's path' quilt when I was in high school. I wore that one out. May still have it just because, but it isn't usable any longer as it would disintegrate when washed it is so worn.

Sunshine, that is exactly the picture my baby sister's doctors painted for her 5 years ago. She had smoked for 30 years or more and had a kind of thyroid cancer that's tough to get at. He sent her home with a warning to get her affairs in order and pick out a plot because she had 2 to 6 months. I don't know which was worse, her sickness or her worried state. Her father-in-law insisted that she be treated by the #1 cancer curers in America. When she went there, they told her forget about her other doctor's dire predictions, sent her to Galveston for chemo, rest on the beach, where she went to classes on nutrition and creating new health. She renewed her faith, too. Right now, she still has COPD and allergies, but I came home to Texas to be with her in her last years. It looks like That is not the case. She lives a reasonably good life at this time, and we're working through her arthritic issues this month. She's following doctor's orders, and she makes time for making things for her church bazaar. I am now confident she will continue to get better with me here to give her a hug now and then. Here's a hug for you <<<hug>>> and the address of onr og America's top successful fighters: Cancer Treatment and Cancer Research - MD Anderson Cancer Center Of course, I may be stupid and that may not be your problem, but if it is, do not put off making an appointment. They've pulled thousands of people back who thought their life was nearly over, just like my sister who was starting to resign herself to an ultimate fate 5 years ago. I really don't do that much for her, I'm just a lot closer, and I'm usually feeling ten times better than I was back in really cold country with help I've gotten from good old country style doctors here. Well, she's not a good old boy, but my physician really helped me out with pain management for my little problem that's not near as bad as yours sounds.

Regardless, you have my prayers for recuperation and time and good feelings enough to make as many quilts as pleases you.

<<< more hugs >>>

Make that appointment for the center nearest you right away, okay?

​

Thanks. Mine isn't cancer. Mine is pulmonary hypertension which is fatal after 6 months of no treatment. I had already been 6 months without treatment when I went to Vanderbilt. The MD told me I would never work again. Two weeks later, I was back at work with a medication pump in tow. I can't deny that first week back was a rough rough week. But the strength has increase and I think it is because I make myself get up every day and hump it on in to work. I would like to retire in order to finish my projects. My friends have told me to take up writing for pay. And I am seriously considering doing that, but would have to have gotten paid for some things before I had the confidence to quit work. I've had publications in newspapers and professional journals, but those were sans pay. LOL.

 

[freedombecki]

I have a maple leaf quilt top my mother put together from my dress scraps. I've never quilted it, but since my SIL is from Canada would really like to get it done for him and my daughter. Right now, it's really hard to know if I will have the time to finish any of my projects or not as the doctors painted such a grim picture of my illness. Also, have to keep working as long as possible to keep the insurance going, so time is an issue on two fronts. On a positive note, I have reread the only two novels I had planned on rereading before I die. Now, if I can just get the updates finished on my house, I can settle into doing some quilting and writing and hopefully some painting as well. After Christmas when I am off for a little vacation, I will see if I can locate that top and post a picture. I will also look for the only one I have that my grandmother made. I think it is ugly and no one else wanted it, but at least I got one. Also, my mother made me a 'drunkard's path' quilt when I was in high school. I wore that one out. May still have it just because, but it isn't usable any longer as it would disintegrate when washed it is so worn.

Sunshine, that is exactly the picture my baby sister's doctors painted for her 5 years ago. She had smoked for 30 years or more and had a kind of thyroid cancer that's tough to get at. He sent her home with a warning to get her affairs in order and pick out a plot because she had 2 to 6 months. I don't know which was worse, her sickness or her worried state. Her father-in-law insisted that she be treated by the #1 cancer curers in America. When she went there, they told her forget about her other doctor's dire predictions, sent her to Galveston for chemo, rest on the beach, where she went to classes on nutrition and creating new health. She renewed her faith, too. Right now, she still has COPD and allergies, but I came home to Texas to be with her in her last years. It looks like That is not the case. She lives a reasonably good life at this time, and we're working through her arthritic issues this month. She's following doctor's orders, and she makes time for making things for her church bazaar. I am now confident she will continue to get better with me here to give her a hug now and then. Here's a hug for you <<<hug>>> and the address of onr og America's top successful fighters: Cancer Treatment and Cancer Research - MD Anderson Cancer Center Of course, I may be stupid and that may not be your problem, but if it is, do not put off making an appointment. They've pulled thousands of people back who thought their life was nearly over, just like my sister who was starting to resign herself to an ultimate fate 5 years ago. I really don't do that much for her, I'm just a lot closer, and I'm usually feeling ten times better than I was back in really cold country with help I've gotten from good old country style doctors here. Well, she's not a good old boy, but my physician really helped me out with pain management for my little problem that's not near as bad as yours sounds.

Regardless, you have my prayers for recuperation and time and good feelings enough to make as many quilts as pleases you.

<<< more hugs >>>

Make that appointment for the center nearest you right away, okay?

​

Thanks. Mine isn't cancer. Mine is pulmonary hypertension which is fatal after 6 months of no treatment. I had already been 6 months without treatment when I went to Vanderbilt. The MD told me I would never work again. Two weeks later, I was back at work with a medication pump in tow. I can't deny that first week back was a rough rough week. But the strength has increase and I think it is because I make myself get up every day and hump it on in to work. I would like to retire in order to finish my projects. My friends have told me to take up writing for pay. And I am seriously considering doing that, but would have to have gotten paid for some things before I had the confidence to quit work. I've had publications in newspapers and professional journals, but those were sans pay. LOL.

Your writing here is excellent, your thoughts a model. Sending healing thoughts and prayers your way.

 

[Sunshine]

Sunshine, that is exactly the picture my baby sister's doctors painted for her 5 years ago. She had smoked for 30 years or more and had a kind of thyroid cancer that's tough to get at. He sent her home with a warning to get her affairs in order and pick out a plot because she had 2 to 6 months. I don't know which was worse, her sickness or her worried state. Her father-in-law insisted that she be treated by the #1 cancer curers in America. When she went there, they told her forget about her other doctor's dire predictions, sent her to Galveston for chemo, rest on the beach, where she went to classes on nutrition and creating new health. She renewed her faith, too. Right now, she still has COPD and allergies, but I came home to Texas to be with her in her last years. It looks like That is not the case. She lives a reasonably good life at this time, and we're working through her arthritic issues this month. She's following doctor's orders, and she makes time for making things for her church bazaar. I am now confident she will continue to get better with me here to give her a hug now and then. Here's a hug for you <<<hug>>> and the address of onr og America's top successful fighters: Cancer Treatment and Cancer Research - MD Anderson Cancer Center Of course, I may be stupid and that may not be your problem, but if it is, do not put off making an appointment. They've pulled thousands of people back who thought their life was nearly over, just like my sister who was starting to resign herself to an ultimate fate 5 years ago. I really don't do that much for her, I'm just a lot closer, and I'm usually feeling ten times better than I was back in really cold country with help I've gotten from good old country style doctors here. Well, she's not a good old boy, but my physician really helped me out with pain management for my little problem that's not near as bad as yours sounds.

Regardless, you have my prayers for recuperation and time and good feelings enough to make as many quilts as pleases you.

<<< more hugs >>>

Make that appointment for the center nearest you right away, okay?

​

Thanks. Mine isn't cancer. Mine is pulmonary hypertension which is fatal after 6 months of no treatment. I had already been 6 months without treatment when I went to Vanderbilt. The MD told me I would never work again. Two weeks later, I was back at work with a medication pump in tow. I can't deny that first week back was a rough rough week. But the strength has increase and I think it is because I make myself get up every day and hump it on in to work. I would like to retire in order to finish my projects. My friends have told me to take up writing for pay. And I am seriously considering doing that, but would have to have gotten paid for some things before I had the confidence to quit work. I've had publications in newspapers and professional journals, but those were sans pay. LOL.

Your writing here is excellent, your thoughts a model. Sending healing thoughts and prayers your way.

Thanks for the compliment. Have you thought of doing a quilt book? How to? Or pattern book? Or maybe a cross stitch pattern book. I have two classmates who have published quilt books. Those books do real well around here. Probably other places as well as the baby boomer women are aging and needing a hobby when they retire.

While I work, I'm thinking of getting a state of the art sewing machine. Don't know if I will ever use it. But my daughter has taken up sewing and with no instruction has done really well. I'd like for her to inherit a good machine. Its in her genes, though, from her father's side. My mother sewed, but the gene skippid over me! LOL. I can't make clothes. My daughter has spent the last 10 years doing drafting in architectural firms. The first pattern she saw she said, 'it's just a blueprint.' LOL. I would have never thought of it that way. Her stuff is really good, too!

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks. Mine isn't cancer. Mine is pulmonary hypertension which is fatal after 6 months of no treatment. I had already been 6 months without treatment when I went to Vanderbilt. The MD told me I would never work again. Two weeks later, I was back at work with a medication pump in tow. I can't deny that first week back was a rough rough week. But the strength has increase and I think it is because I make myself get up every day and hump it on in to work. I would like to retire in order to finish my projects. My friends have told me to take up writing for pay. And I am seriously considering doing that, but would have to have gotten paid for some things before I had the confidence to quit work. I've had publications in newspapers and professional journals, but those were sans pay. LOL.

Your writing here is excellent, your thoughts a model. Sending healing thoughts and prayers your way.

Thanks for the compliment. Have you thought of doing a quilt book? How to? Or pattern book? Or maybe a cross stitch pattern book. I have two classmates who have published quilt books. Those books do real well around here. Probably other places as well as the baby boomer women are aging and needing a hobby when they retire.

While I work, I'm thinking of getting a state of the art sewing machine. Don't know if I will ever use it. But my daughter has taken up sewing and with no instruction has done really well. I'd like for her to inherit a good machine. Its in her genes, though, from her father's side. My mother sewed, but the gene skippid over me! LOL. I can't make clothes. My daughter has spent the last 10 years doing drafting in architectural firms. The first pattern she saw she said, 'it's just a blueprint.' LOL. I would have never thought of it that way. Her stuff is really good, too!

I'm reviewing in my mind your beautiful stitchery pictures. I am not seeing any gene skips in the creative sewing area. I am seeing the highest level of needle arts in your genes with not only stitchery, but a beautifully embroidered quilt as well that I am dying to see a border on. I'm usually not very psychic since my mom passed in 1973, but the needle arts are my harbor, and I've made a small sea of quilts in my lifetime (over 600 by my last count). In case you didn't know it, the skillful quilting of 3 layers of fabric into a quilt is truly the highest form of needle artistry. Add counted cross stitch and other embellishment, and you are strictly in the aesthetics of sewing realm. /tapping toe and ending lecture

 

[Sunshine]

Your writing here is excellent, your thoughts a model. Sending healing thoughts and prayers your way.

Thanks for the compliment. Have you thought of doing a quilt book? How to? Or pattern book? Or maybe a cross stitch pattern book. I have two classmates who have published quilt books. Those books do real well around here. Probably other places as well as the baby boomer women are aging and needing a hobby when they retire.

While I work, I'm thinking of getting a state of the art sewing machine. Don't know if I will ever use it. But my daughter has taken up sewing and with no instruction has done really well. I'd like for her to inherit a good machine. Its in her genes, though, from her father's side. My mother sewed, but the gene skippid over me! LOL. I can't make clothes. My daughter has spent the last 10 years doing drafting in architectural firms. The first pattern she saw she said, 'it's just a blueprint.' LOL. I would have never thought of it that way. Her stuff is really good, too!

I'm reviewing in my mind your beautiful stitchery pictures. I am not seeing any gene skips in the creative sewing area. I am seeing the highest level of needle arts in your genes with not only stitchery, but a beautifully embroidered quilt as well that I am dying to see a border on. I'm usually not very psychic since my mom passed in 1973, but the needle arts are my harbor, and I've made a small sea of quilts in my lifetime (over 600 by my last count). In case you didn't know it, the skillful quilting of 3 layers of fabric into a quilt is truly the highest form of needle artistry. Add counted cross stitch and other embellishment, and you are strictly in the aesthetics of sewing realm. /tapping toe and ending lecture

LOL. I stand corrected! After I take the week off to do a little cleaning, I'm going to pick the cross stitch quilt blocks back up. Should I not live to get them quilted, I at least want to have a top each for my kids. So that means I will try get both tops done, the green and the pink one, before I actually quilt them. The kids can have them quilted if I can't do it. I learned how to hand quilt from my mother. She didn't make a lot of quilts, but she was still somthing of a quilt snob! LOL The smaller the stitch the better you were at it! LOL. She used to see quilts others had done and say, 'you would hang your toenails in those stitches.' LOL.

If I do get to quilt them, I may have to get someone from a local place, or one of my classmates who did a book, to help me get the batting in, the back on, and get it set up because I don't recall that step quite so well.

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks for the compliment. Have you thought of doing a quilt book? How to? Or pattern book? Or maybe a cross stitch pattern book. I have two classmates who have published quilt books. Those books do real well around here. Probably other places as well as the baby boomer women are aging and needing a hobby when they retire.

While I work, I'm thinking of getting a state of the art sewing machine. Don't know if I will ever use it. But my daughter has taken up sewing and with no instruction has done really well. I'd like for her to inherit a good machine. Its in her genes, though, from her father's side. My mother sewed, but the gene skippid over me! LOL. I can't make clothes. My daughter has spent the last 10 years doing drafting in architectural firms. The first pattern she saw she said, 'it's just a blueprint.' LOL. I would have never thought of it that way. Her stuff is really good, too!

I'm reviewing in my mind your beautiful stitchery pictures. I am not seeing any gene skips in the creative sewing area. I am seeing the highest level of needle arts in your genes with not only stitchery, but a beautifully embroidered quilt as well that I am dying to see a border on. I'm usually not very psychic since my mom passed in 1973, but the needle arts are my harbor, and I've made a small sea of quilts in my lifetime (over 600 by my last count). In case you didn't know it, the skillful quilting of 3 layers of fabric into a quilt is truly the highest form of needle artistry. Add counted cross stitch and other embellishment, and you are strictly in the aesthetics of sewing realm. /tapping toe and ending lecture

LOL. I stand corrected! After I take the week off to do a little cleaning, I'm going to pick the cross stitch quilt blocks back up. Should I not live to get them quilted, I at least want to have a top each for my kids. So that means I will try get both tops done, the green and the pink one, before I actually quilt them. The kids can have them quilted if I can't do it. I learned how to hand quilt from my mother. She didn't make a lot of quilts, but she was still something of a quilt snob! LOL The smaller the stitch the better you were at it! LOL. She used to see quilts others had done and say, 'you would hang your toenails in those stitches.' LOL.

If I do get to quilt them, I may have to get someone from a local place, or one of my classmates who did a book, to help me get the batting in, the back on, and get it set up because I don't recall that step quite so well.

If you baste the quilt or quilts, it's a good idea to tape the 100% cotton quilt back to a linoleum or wood floor, pat the batting over it (both backing and batting should be 8" longer and 6" wider than the actual top. (use a 120-inch Quilter's tape measure, available at most quilt stores or from a quilter's mail order supply) Be certain the backing and the quilt top have been carefully pressed before placing together. Use a backing that is similar in quality to the top. Some quilters do not know that the cheapest muslin on the market is also known as "burn away muslin" and will destroy the work put into the quilt. For embroidered quilts, I'd use Kona cotton if you can find it. It's thick yet pliable enough to quilt when prepared by washing and a quick press. If you take it directly out of the dryer, sew it up on the spot, press the seam allowance open, you can go ahead and tape it down to your freshly-swiffered floor. Otherwise, I'd truly recommend the consideration of 3.5 or 4 yards of 110" wide backing, up to 120" wide, depending on the size of your completed top. I always take three measurements - 3 inches from the top, dead center, 3 inches from the bottom on a large quilt. You need 3 horizontal and 3 vertical measurements done the same way. Trust me, it will save you some major grief. Sometimes, quilt tops are not pressed properly before quilting, and when the indentations improperly pressed at seam areas are pressed out, the quilt can grow a great deal. Embroidered quilts should be pressed on top using a good pressing cloth so that the beautiful embroidery threads will retain their sheen and color through the years.

I've self-published 3 or 4 books and also copyrighted at least 3 of them through the Library of Congress. I wouldn't recommend writing, proofing, copyrighting, marketing, and selling the book to anyone in their right mind. I did all that, and we had almost no social life for 3 years while I was rewriting the Aesthetics of Southwest Album Applique Quilt. It was my best of show at the state fair as well as my local best-seller. Not enough quilters to have an applique group, but we got by with anywhere from 3 to 6 quilters each of the 4 years I taught the quilt. After that, I just wrote a second edition and expanded the book to accommodate wallhangings, a preferred sashing, and multiple sizes, also 12 more patterns. Some of the last designs were done due to student suggestions on what they wanted me to design for their southwest quilt, and others were the product of my continuing education and recollections of living in the Southwest at two different locations when my father took on administrative duties for 2 different 12-grade schools.

I'm so glad you got back to me on the cross-stitched quilt border and hope it goes quickly for you so we can see even a full corner, since your quilt looks symmetric both north to south and east to west.

I knocked out a child-sized friendship star quilt all except the last border. It's already 40 inches wide and nearly 5 feet long. I just started piddling at the machine for the first time in 2 or 3 days, and the first thing you know, I had a 28" medallion log cabin with blocks shaped into a friendship star. I'm not sure I've ever seen one just like it, but on one of the earlier quilts in November, I made one of the quilts with a light-colored star and had scads of squares left. I will have some to take up to the quilter's closet next week. Don't know why, but having people to chat with about quilts is really great for stocking the quilter's closet with well-worked (though a little scrappy) child-sized quilts. I'm trying to make them with a young adult-sized child's quilt that can keep a child warm through his childhood and through college dormer days. for girls, that would be a 72" quilt, and for boys, about 80". Of course, a young Wilt Chamberlain would just have to wear wool socks.

 

[Sunshine]

I'm reviewing in my mind your beautiful stitchery pictures. I am not seeing any gene skips in the creative sewing area. I am seeing the highest level of needle arts in your genes with not only stitchery, but a beautifully embroidered quilt as well that I am dying to see a border on. I'm usually not very psychic since my mom passed in 1973, but the needle arts are my harbor, and I've made a small sea of quilts in my lifetime (over 600 by my last count). In case you didn't know it, the skillful quilting of 3 layers of fabric into a quilt is truly the highest form of needle artistry. Add counted cross stitch and other embellishment, and you are strictly in the aesthetics of sewing realm. /tapping toe and ending lecture

LOL. I stand corrected! After I take the week off to do a little cleaning, I'm going to pick the cross stitch quilt blocks back up. Should I not live to get them quilted, I at least want to have a top each for my kids. So that means I will try get both tops done, the green and the pink one, before I actually quilt them. The kids can have them quilted if I can't do it. I learned how to hand quilt from my mother. She didn't make a lot of quilts, but she was still something of a quilt snob! LOL The smaller the stitch the better you were at it! LOL. She used to see quilts others had done and say, 'you would hang your toenails in those stitches.' LOL.

If I do get to quilt them, I may have to get someone from a local place, or one of my classmates who did a book, to help me get the batting in, the back on, and get it set up because I don't recall that step quite so well.

If you baste the quilt or quilts, it's a good idea to tape the 100% cotton quilt back to a linoleum or wood floor, pat the batting over it (both backing and batting should be 8" longer and 6" wider than the actual top. (use a 120-inch Quilter's tape measure, available at most quilt stores or from a quilter's mail order supply) Be certain the backing and the quilt top have been carefully pressed before placing together. Use a backing that is similar in quality to the top. Some quilters do not know that the cheapest muslin on the market is also known as "burn away muslin" and will destroy the work put into the quilt. For embroidered quilts, I'd use Kona cotton if you can find it. It's thick yet pliable enough to quilt when prepared by washing and a quick press. If you take it directly out of the dryer, sew it up on the spot, press the seam allowance open, you can go ahead and tape it down to your freshly-swiffered floor. Otherwise, I'd truly recommend the consideration of 3.5 or 4 yards of 110" wide backing, up to 120" wide, depending on the size of your completed top. I always take three measurements - 3 inches from the top, dead center, 3 inches from the bottom on a large quilt. You need 3 horizontal and 3 vertical measurements done the same way. Trust me, it will save you some major grief. Sometimes, quilt tops are not pressed properly before quilting, and when the indentations improperly pressed at seam areas are pressed out, the quilt can grow a great deal. Embroidered quilts should be pressed on top using a good pressing cloth so that the beautiful embroidery threads will retain their sheen and color through the years.

I've self-published 3 or 4 books and also copyrighted at least 3 of them through the Library of Congress. I wouldn't recommend writing, proofing, copyrighting, marketing, and selling the book to anyone in their right mind. I did all that, and we had almost no social life for 3 years while I was rewriting the Aesthetics of Southwest Album Applique Quilt. It was my best of show at the state fair as well as my local best-seller. Not enough quilters to have an applique group, but we got by with anywhere from 3 to 6 quilters each of the 4 years I taught the quilt. After that, I just wrote a second edition and expanded the book to accommodate wallhangings, a preferred sashing, and multiple sizes, also 12 more patterns. Some of the last designs were done due to student suggestions on what they wanted me to design for their southwest quilt, and others were the product of my continuing education and recollections of living in the Southwest at two different locations when my father took on administrative duties for 2 different 12-grade schools.

I'm so glad you got back to me on the cross-stitched quilt border and hope it goes quickly for you so we can see even a full corner, since your quilt looks symmetric both north to south and east to west.

I knocked out a child-sized friendship star quilt all except the last border. It's already 40 inches wide and nearly 5 feet long. I just started piddling at the machine for the first time in 2 or 3 days, and the first thing you know, I had a 28" medallion log cabin with blocks shaped into a friendship star. I'm not sure I've ever seen one just like it, but on one of the earlier quilts in November, I made one of the quilts with a light-colored star and had scads of squares left. I will have some to take up to the quilter's closet next week. Don't know why, but having people to chat with about quilts is really great for stocking the quilter's closet with well-worked (though a little scrappy) child-sized quilts. I'm trying to make them with a young adult-sized child's quilt that can keep a child warm through his childhood and through college dormer days. for girls, that would be a 72" quilt, and for boys, about 80". Of course, a young Wilt Chamberlain would just have to wear wool socks.

I have just saved those instructions on my computer.

 

[freedombecki]

Yay!

Thanks, Sunshine. I hope my little bit helped. Trust me, every instruction came from me making a gross error such as having the dubious distinction of having to find the same fabric and piece a strip to a back that was only 3 or 4 " wider or longer, then the top was catywumpus due to failure to measure more than one area of the quilt or noticing the design creeping right or left at the bottom due to a series of mistakes and thinking "1/64 inch is so small, that little mistake won't matter. Multiply that out 32 pieces across the quilt, and your neck will strain looking at blocks 1/2" off the mark. I quilted so many "beginner" quilts as a professional, I can tell you if the quilt was not measured properly, the top could go all over the map. I sent more than one quilts back home with its owner before accepting it after measurements were made. Some of them thought me charging them 5 hours of labor for 5 hours of fixing the too-small back was expensive, but sometimes they'd have a yard or two they had at home and would take it back home and fix it until the back met my specifications. Professional quilt machines demand even more fabric than hand-quilted one due to the rolling process. Invariably, more backing is necessary to accommodate rolling. If the professional machine quilter pulls the top too tightly, stitching errors pop out of their seam allowances leaving batting to spill out if not corrected right away. It takes several hours to dismount and remount a quilt onto the old style of professional longarm I had at the shop. By the time you get it all done, you're licked and might wish to wait until the following day to finish what should already be done if the seams had been sewn more sturdily. Sometimes, the piecer makes an error near the outer edge of a square, the phone rings, she forgets about it, so the quilter has this curious little open area that wasn't noticed until time to mount the quilt. It's nice to know you can utilize the tailor's blind stitch in a topical way if you are resourceful when that happens.

Today was good. I finished the Friendship Star Cabin with 7 borders done steps to log cabin fashion by adding the last border. I was pleased by how the randomly-selected light strips luminesced around the dark Friendship star in the middle. My husband's camera did not send pictures he took to the computer I had repaired. Apparently, they were somehow cleaned off the computer at some point, and some repairs require erasing a lot of memory. It's also a Vista, which I never cared much for, so the information for his camera may be there, I just don't know how to access it. The other alternative could be it was on a different computer or something.

Oh, I won a redwork quilt on ebay last night. I thought of Sunshine when I bid on it, because it had hand cross stitches. I am going to try to collect one red quilt a month and make one and host a local redwork show, perhaps some far time into the future.

The quilt and a closeup of the hand quilting. The third picture is just a reminder of that absolutely amazing red and white collection shown in NYC last March:

 

[Sunshine]

Yay!

Thanks, Sunshine. I hope my little bit helped. Trust me, every instruction came from me making a gross error such as having the dubious distinction of having to find the same fabric and piece a strip to a back that was only 3 or 4 " wider or longer, then the top was catywumpus due to failure to measure more than one area of the quilt or noticing the design creeping right or left at the bottom due to a series of mistakes and thinking "1/64 inch is so small, that little mistake won't matter. Multiply that out 32 pieces across the quilt, and your neck will strain looking at blocks 1/2" off the mark. I quilted so many "beginner" quilts as a professional, I can tell you if the quilt was not measured properly, the top could go all over the map. I sent more than one quilts back home with its owner before accepting it after measurements were made. Some of them thought me charging them 5 hours of labor for 5 hours of fixing the too-small back was expensive, but sometimes they'd have a yard or two they had at home and would take it back home and fix it until the back met my specifications. Professional quilt machines demand even more fabric than hand-quilted one due to the rolling process. Invariably, more backing is necessary to accommodate rolling. If the professional machine quilter pulls the top too tightly, stitching errors pop out of their seam allowances leaving batting to spill out if not corrected right away. It takes several hours to dismount and remount a quilt onto the old style of professional longarm I had at the shop. By the time you get it all done, you're licked and might wish to wait until the following day to finish what should already be done if the seams had been sewn more sturdily. Sometimes, the piecer makes an error near the outer edge of a square, the phone rings, she forgets about it, so the quilter has this curious little open area that wasn't noticed until time to mount the quilt. It's nice to know you can utilize the tailor's blind stitch in a topical way if you are resourceful when that happens.

Today was good. I finished the Friendship Star Cabin with 7 borders done steps to log cabin fashion by adding the last border. I was pleased by how the randomly-selected light strips luminesced around the dark Friendship star in the middle. My husband's camera did not send pictures he took to the computer I had repaired. Apparently, they were somehow cleaned off the computer at some point, and some repairs require erasing a lot of memory. It's also a Vista, which I never cared much for, so the information for his camera may be there, I just don't know how to access it. The other alternative could be it was on a different computer or something.

Oh, I won a redwork quilt on ebay last night. I thought of Sunshine when I bid on it, because it had hand cross stitches. I am going to try to collect one red quilt a month and make one and host a local redwork show, perhaps some far time into the future.

The quilt and a closeup of the hand quilting. The third picture is just a reminder of that absolutely amazing red and white collection shown in NYC last March:

Wow! Those are some talented quilters. I really like that red. The importance of keeping things straight is not lost here. I have hung wallpaper in 4 houses. You can't get off even one millimeter or you pay at the corners. And sometime the house isn't plumb, so you have to pick your spot to even it out, usually in a short piece over a door or windown, or behind where a curtain will hang. Plumb is more than just a state of mind. (Whatever that means, I'm really tired tonight! LOL)