If at first ...

These were the new lights purchased for our back yard fence ~

after less than 2 weeks, 1/2 each of FOUR strings had gone dead

(of the nine sets we had hung) . . .

NOT acceptable ~ 

so they were taken down and returned for a refund.

Across the street to the other warehouse store we went 

and came home with these (also warm white).

On the other side of the carton are two VERY important words ~ 

"Constant On" means that when one light goes out all the rest stay lit

(not when one goes out, half the string goes out like our first batch).

Buyer beware ~ there IS a difference in LED lights!

DH installed brass cup hooks every so often along the fence

for easier hanging and taking down.

These are the new lights . . . 

they also look better in the daytime.

It was finally time for the annuals to come out . . .

(believe it or not, the begonias were still blooming 

and the dusty miller was only a bit leggy).

Next I'm off to call XM Radio and cancel our subscription

(Pandora's internet radio is free and the music is both diverse and awesome).

I also need to set up the Sansa player so it can stay in my quilt studio.

I've switched the music on my iPod for the holiday season

and am tired of forgetting to take it upstairs with me . . . 

Maybe I can find some time to stitch ~

but so many other things are demanding attention!

New Music and More

Click here to watch and listen to Loreena McKennitt talking about her brand new (as of 10/19) 2-CD album - A Mediterranean Odyssey while excerpts of the music play in the background ~ it is marvelous and exquisite! I can feel the swirling, textural colors as I listen.

Not much quilty going on these days ~ but I'm reading and pondering and working to regain my inner balance. The photos will enlarge when double clicked ~ Enjoy!

"Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall." (Annie Dillard)

"What I know in my bones is that I forgot to take time to remember what I know. The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves." (Terry Tempest Williams)

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles." (Diary of Anne Frank)

Quiltdivajulie

photos from Google Images

Just One of Many

When you read the synopsis of A Chorus Line here, you'll understand the title of this post a bit more. No matter what any of us are dealing with, working towards, celebrating, grieving, or savoring, we are just one tiny part of a much larger whole.

DH and I went to see the national touring production of A Chorus Line last night at the Orpheum here in Memphis. Our eldest son and his wife have season tickets but, with Lauren in Asia, we were offered the tickets. I'm glad we went but do wish the couple in front of us had been smaller (we could see stage right and stage left but not the center section).

MIL had a relatively quiet first day in rehab ~ the highlight was a wheelchair tour of her hallway and brief visit to the community room. PT's goal for today is to assist her with her first shower, shampooing her hair, and, if all goes well, getting dressed in her own clothes. As weak and shaky as she is, that will be an all day project (she continues on her multiple pain meds and others for the stomach and esophagus).


Time will tell ~ healing cannot be rushed.

Quiltdivajulie

Comfort and Chaos

Not long ago, I was fortunate/lucky/blessed to purchase a piece of Jude's beautiful work ~ Whispers of Sadness. It is now hanging at my desk so that I can enjoy it during the work week (and share it with others who stop by my work station). You can read more of Jude's thoughts on her piece here and here.

Also along this bulletin board area, I have a small quilt made by the Mistress of Leehaven, a postcard quilt that Michele B. of With Heart and Hands made for AAQI, and an AAQI Priority Quilt made by Karen Musgrave (her blog is here).

These quilts comfort me. They help me stay connected to the deeper parts of myself when I'm surrounded by piles of printouts, projects demanding attention, and filing that needs to be done.

Today is one of those days when I feel a great need for comfort ~ I have so many topics swirling in my head and not enough time to work on any of them for more than a few minutes before having to leap to the next. I so want to pick one and work until I'm exhausted by it before shifting to another. . .

I want to be at home with time to "clean up" my music and get it properly synched on my Nano, to finish the major cleaning I started last night in my studio (including recovering my ironing table and sorting out patterns I'll never use), to piece the back for my finally finished scrappy baskets top, to do the laundry and get it put away, to sit and stare out the windows, to finish even a few of the dozens of unfinished tasks . . . I need to lose myself in my sewing for hours. I need to write until my hand cramps and refuses to move another inch. I need to work until I wear myself out.

These things tug at me all day while I'm supposed to be focused on early 1900's legal descriptions for a series of warranty deeds, learning how and setting up archive folders for my boss's 1000's of old e-mails that are clogging the firm's server, and loading three notebooks full of contacts into his Outlook program while smiling at each person who passes my desk.

And so, I pause and the quilts remind me that there is so much more to life than what I see stacked on this desk.

Breathing in . . . breathing out . . .

Quiltdivajulie

Laurel & Freddy & Ruth, Oh My!

That's Laurel Burch (fabric designer) and Freddy Moran (one can never have too much color) and Ruth Kimes (DH's grandmother) . . .

I took Monday as a vacation/mental health day.  I needed the time to sit and watch the wind blow through the trees, feel the fresh air, enjoy the sunshine and fast-moving clouds, and just let my mind wander.

I also needed time to power sew.

This 56" x64" finished top is the result ~  896 2-1/2" squares became sixteen-patch blocks before being set into 8 rows of 7 blocks each .

I've already pieced the back (peeking out from under the top as they hang over the balcony) and pulled leftover bits of binding in scrappy, companionable colors ~ so this one will soon be off to Chris for quilting ~ it has been a journey quilt (getting from there to here so I can move beyond). 

Now, about Ruth Kimes.  She was an artist who lived ahead of her time ~ how she would love the altered art world of today.  The framed piece shown above features two of her textile paintings and, on the back of the frame, I attached a page protector to hold an 8x10 photo of her at work and a copy of the newspaper article that appeared in February 1949.  The first woman to serve on her local school board, she worked for many years under contract with a large department store in Pittsburgh creating one-of-a-kind blouses ~ she later turned her efforts to teaching, lecturing, and selling her custom blouses through a mail order business (not to mention showing her paintings and other textile and metal arts in area shows and exhibitions).   

Quiltdivajulie

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"Affliction comes to all not to make us sad, but sober; not to make us sorry, but wise; not to make us despondent, but its darkness to refresh us, as the night refreshes the day; not to impoverish, but to enrich us, as the plow enriches the field..."  (Henry Ward Beecher)

Happy Discovery

While Colors of Joy was off the wall I made the most wonderful, happy, discovery ~ when I made the quilt I 2005, I had created a gloriously colorful, very scrappy back! I'd forgotten that entirely and, since I wasn't good at quilt photography then, I had no photos of the back.

What a truly joyous insight ~ my approach has been there all along, not just something that evolved over time ~ it is actually part of my core consciousness. . . may not seem like a big deal to others, but it is huge for me.

So, before the quilt went back up on the wall, I took it outside for a photo shoot (in 29 degree windy weather). You can see the photos here. The quilt's name fits better now than ever . . .

And do you remember the Straight No Chaser guys who sang that amazing version of the 12 Days of Christmas? Did you know they have a holiday CD available now? It's absolutely WONDERFUL! (their video has been pulled from You Tube by their record company, but you can still see it on their website.)

Quiltdivajulie
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"A sacred illness is one that educates us and alters us from the inside out, provides experiences and therefore knowledge that we could not possibly achieve in any other way." (Deena Metzger)

Background Music

So what do you listen to when you're in your studio?

While I was piecing the letters for the flying monkeys quilt top, I alternated between these free-spirited CDs...


And this is my latest addition ~ 3 full CDs of amazing music... you gotta love B.B.

How about you?

Quiltdivajulie

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"Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons.

You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body."

(Oliver Wendell Holmes)

My 100th Post ~ Merry Christmas

Please sit back and spend 4 minutes with the Trans Siberian Orchestra and their peformance of the Christmas Canon song from their Christmas Attic cd (Pachelbel's Canon in D Major performed on solo guitar was the processional at Eric's & Lauren's wedding ... so much meaning in this song)




and here's another version:

A 2-hour mini-retreat

I spent the evening in my studio piecing 3 rows of a springtime quilt top. I've had these segments cut for a couple of months but have been working on other projects (notably my journal quilts for November and December). With my Diana Krall Live in Paris cd playing and the whirr of my machine (the 440 is in the shop so I'm using my trusty 153 for now), it felt good to be in a non-holiday world for a couple of hours. The 6" finished blocks laid out 9 x 11 plus borders will yield a generous lap quilt. The photo above just doesn't do the fabrics justice... but it offers a hint of things to come. And, not at all like the usual procedure, this quilt was named before I ever cut into the yardage ~ Brenrich Cove. It was inspired by a two-block stretch that I drive every day going to work. The gated-neighborhood is bordered with a hedgerow of the most beautiful mature crape myrtles ~ their rich lilac shades are nothing short of spectacular during their prolonged spring and early summer bloom season. For many of the quilts that I gift, I include a haiku written inside the gift card. As of now, I plan to keep Brenrich Cove but the haiku has already been written:

Weathered picket fence

Summer evening crickets chirp

Drowsy blooms caress

But, for now, it is back to December and off to work. Tippy has made her holiday reservations at Camp Sefton (she'll be with us for a week). There are only a few gifts still to be wrapped and just one more trip to the grocery store... then these last few days will pass by in a rush. I hope that you find moments to remember mixed in with all of the "to-do" items on your lists!!

The Reason for the Season

As I mentioned in one of my earlier December posts, I love the Point of Grace holiday cd A Christmas Story. One of my favorite songs on the cd is One King, and, in particular, the words of the chorus:

"One king held the frankincense
One king held the myrrh
One king held the purest gold
One king held the hope of the world"

One More Christmas Tree

And, for the grand finale, here is the 7-1/2' tree in our living room... ironically, it was the first to be set up but the last to be decorated. Angel's favorite place to spend December is curled up in the tree skirt so this year I opted for the easy-to-launder sparkle chenille lap throw instead of the heavily embroidered skirt I've used before. This photo shows one of my favorite moments of the season and is a variation of the one that we used on our Christmas cards this year ~ this one is for all of my blogging friends... Wishing you moments of quiet joy ~

I spent a couple of hours late yesterday tidying up my quilt studio ~ tossing things I will never use (i.e. patterns printed from the Internet, items clipped from magazines, etc.) and filing those I still might try. It felt so good to clear out the clutter!

After dinner, I started back on my journal quilt projects. I had completed a front cover and a 9" x 12" quilt for each month through September but had not done anything for October, November, or December. October's quilt is ready for hand quilting and November's just needs to have the binding flipped to the back and stitched. I have the fabrics cut and ready for December's quilt along with fabrics for the back cover, which will feature some free-pieced lettering. The plan is to finish this project before the end of the year, then create a web album of photos to share in January...

Holiday music note for today - Point of Grace's A Christmas Story tracks 5 to the end (not so fond of the first four tracks). I particularly like Not That Far From Bethlehem and One King.

And today's quotation: "I think over again my small adventures, my fears, those small ones that seemed so big, all those vital things I had to get and to reach, and yet there is only one great thing: to live and see the great day that dawns, and the light that fills the world." (Old Innuit Song)

Handmade Christmas Cards

Here are the cards I gave to my co-workers this morning. The three in the one photo were given to my attorneys (3 of the 9 in the firm) and the six in the other photo are for my fellow staffers (theirs have royal blue hot-fix crystal 'ornaments' as well as the crystal 'snowflakes'. Dena loaned me her card back to take a close-up since the ones I took late last night didn't "work" at all:

I found the photo insert cards at Michaels a few weeks ago, which started this year's project (I made insert cards last year using scrappy batiks left from an earlier project but I hadn't settled on what 4" x 6" design to make this year, until I saw Vicki's post on her alumninum tree postcard). My inserts were made with the deep royal blue fabric for the front and back and quilt batting in between. I strip-pieced the scrappy trees and then machine appliqued them to the sandwiched background. I did one row of zig-zag stitching around the edges so that folks can pull the inserts out if they don't want to keep the entire card (the edges are a bit folk-artish looking to fit with the style of the trees).

I make a charitable donation in honor of my co-workers and then give these handmade cards to let them know about the gift. Here's a photo of how the cards looked when I presented them earlier today:

Music note for today ~ Snow Angels by Over the Rhine. I'd never heard of this group nor heard any of their music, but this cd feels like an eclectic blend of styles ala Diana Krall and Joni Mitchell/Joan Baez. Great lyrics and vocals, nice mix of harmonies and instruments, and a delightful contrast to the perky canned "elevator music" that seems to surround everything these days. The liner notes are well done ... all around, I'm happy I took a chance on this one!

Christmas ~ Part 3

While this photo doesn't include any of our family quilts, it does show Larry's upside-down Christmas tree and my old Singer sewing machine. Lauren found this little table top tree for him last year and I decorated it with white lights and an assortment of glittery snowflakes, gold & rust color balls, and sparkled floral picks. Here's a photo of it, without flash:

[For years, Larry had jokingly threatened to hang our 7-1/2 foot tree from the ceiling in order to save floor space and to give the ornaments more room to hang. While it didn't actually happen, it became a standing family joke that 'this year' we would really do it...]

And, here's a photo showing three of the hollow form pierced woodturned Christmas ornaments that Larry made (they're light as a feather). And, underneath the iron hanger, you can see just a portion of a table runner that I made last year...

No specific music suggestions today, aside from the fact that I adore Celtic holiday music. I saw Celtic Woman in concert a year or so ago after watching them on PBS every time they were on. There's just something about the complex harmonies... (maybe it's because I have so many ancestors who came from Scotland and Ireland).

Quilts at Christmas ~ Part 2

Today's photo shows the table top tree in the corner of our dining room. The cloth draped over the table was purchased from a traveling peddler in 1896 by Larry's great-grandfather, James Monroe Davidson. He used some of his "mustering out" money to make the purchase and was fussed at by his new wife, Katherine May ("Kate") Vadican Davidson that it was "an extravagence." Kate passed the tablecloth on to her daughter, Ruth Davidson Kimes; who passed it on to her daughter Joan Kimes Sefton; who has now passed it on to Larry and me. One hundred and eleven years later, that humble woven cloth is still in perfect condition.

Another of my favorite holiday cd's Enchanted Christmas features the gentle, ethereal, and contemplative harp music of Anna Maria Mendieta. From a review at her website: "The critically acclaimed debut album introducing Anna Maria's fresh and innovative style sparkles and shimmers with a tasteful blend of the classic and contemporary, solo and ensemble. Sumptuous strings, haunting woodwinds, and light percussive effects add angelic soundscapes to compliment the harp arrangements. During the first year of it's release, this dazzling album quickly became a best seller across the county, including the top selling item nationwide for "The Nature Company." You can learn more about her here.

...and, today is "reveal" day for those of us who have been part of Tonya's First Ever LazyGal Online class. We've each made a block with our "name" and sent them off to her in Paris. Today, we're posting photos of our blocks so everyone else can see (the letters in mine are 3" high):

P.S. I just found this on Vicki's blog ~ it is TOO funny not to share!! Click here to read about stashbusting (be prepared to laugh!!)

Quilts at Christmas ~ Part 1

I love using our family quilts when decorating for Christmas. My maternal grandmother's quilt Elsie's Broken Dishes serves as the "ground" for my mother's collection of lighted houses. The last time I put out Mom's village, the quilt was still a lumpy, yarn-tied comforter. This year, I am so happy with the way the quilting and new borders add to the "look" (you can see my earlier post for this rescue quilt here). [...and the lighted ceramic Christmas tree in the center of the display was one of our wedding gifts. It was made by a sweet neighbor-lady who lived down the street from me when I was growing up in Michigan.]

In the coming days, I'll be sharing more photos... but for now, I will share with you a link to one of my MOST favorite holiday CDs ~ Behold The Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson. Here's a portion of what he wrote on his website about this album: "What makes this bunch of songs unique is that I wanted to remind (or teach) the audience that the story of Christmas doesn’t begin with the birth of Jesus. Many people tend to forget or have never even learned that the entire Bible is about Jesus, not just the New Testament. So the musical begins with Moses and the symbolic story of the Passover (Passover Us) and works its way through the kings and the prophets with their many prophecies about the coming Messiah (So Long, Moses) to the awful four hundred years of silence before God told Mary she’d be having a baby (Deliver Us). After the song called Matthew’s Begats, which lists the genealogy of Jesus, the story picks up in more familiar territory with Mary and Joseph and the actual birth (It Came To Pass, Labor of Love). The final song is called Behold, the Lamb of God, which ties together the Passover and the beauty and scope of the story."