Giving thanks.

Since Veteran's Day I've used my Facebook status everyday to say something I'm thankful for in my life. The status updates are below:

• I'm thankful for our veterans. I don't support war but I do support the people who give their lives to defend our country.
• I am thankful for an awesome family. I have a beautiful husband, 3 parents, 2 sisters, 2 brothers, 4 grandparents, 5 nephews, 3 nieces, countless (but not remotely insignificant) aunts, uncles and cousins and I'm proud to be related to every single one.
• I am on day 3 of "what she's thankful for" status updates. Today I'm thankful for the ability to use my hands to make things.
  
• I am thankful for the roof over my head, even if there are idiots on the other side of the wall. See what I did there? I am thankful but complainy at the same time.
  
• I am thankful for music and musicians, whatever genre.
  
• I am thankful for silliness at any and every age.
  
• I am is thankful to have a degree in art history even if it has gotten her nowhere professionally. It's moved me along emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
  
• I am thankful for the inspiring creativity of others.
  
• I am thankful for the life and laugh of Errin Vuley. She will be missed by so many.
  
• I am thankful for the technologies that keep so many of us long lost friends closer than we've been in years.
• I am thankful for quiet Saturday mornings with her hubs, kitties and beautiful weather coming through the open window.
  
• I am thankful for humor. You'll see why when we send out our Christmas cards this year.
  
• I have only hinted at being thankful for friends in the FB status thankfulness exercise, so today it's official. I'm thankful for all my friends, all over the world.
  
• I'm thankful for all the people we lost this year. Not thankful that we lost them, but thankful that we had the chance to know them and love them and learn from them.
  
• I'm thankful my husband doesn't play World of Warcraft.
  

Some days I've stared off into space trying to think of something I'm thankful for. Other days I haven't needed to think for more than the time it takes to click "Update Status". Some days were serious, like the day I recognized my friend who lost her life in a car accident. Some days have been silly like being grateful my husband doesn't play WoW. But each one was true. And I guess it doesn't even have to be done around Thanksgiving. I'll probably work in a few "thankful" status updates now and again, just as a reminder of the love I have in my life, the humor in the every day and the beauty in the seemingly mundane.

Baby blankets and great grandmothers.

Since starting this blog I've been thinking a lot about all the projects I've tackled over the years. The projects that stand out most in my mind are my crocheted baby blankets. I've completed and gifted so many of them I can't even remember how many I've made.

I remember when I was about 7 my great grandmother taught me how to crochet. But before she could teach me to crochet, we had to prepare the yarn. She had me take a whole skein of yarn - it was white - and roll it into a ball. Then she took a 2 liter coke bottle - this was back when coke bottles had an opaque colored plastic base that the rest of the bottle sat in that was most likely for balance but who knows - pried the black bowl off, cut off the bottom of the bottle, tucked the ball of yarn into the black plastic bowl, snaked the free end of the yarn up through the mouth of the bottle and shoved the bottle top back into the black bowl.

 The purpose of this was of course to keep the yarn from getting tangled into a giant mess. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent untangling yarn as an adult. If only I'd learn from this first lesson.

She was very patient with me once we took our hooks in hand. Patient but not doting. She was a firm teacher and didn't mince words. Mama Bert (her name was Bertha) taught me to wrap the yarn around the fingers of my right hand so I always had grasp of the yarn. This took me a long time to master. She taught me that my stitches shouldn't be too tight because otherwise I'd never be able to get the hook back through them. Again, it took some time to master this.

We started with the chain stitch. I think I made a chain the length of the house. Then she taught me single crochet which left me with, you guessed it, a thicker chain the length of the house. I later on taught myself all of the additional stitches and got plenty of tips and tricks from my stepmother. Now, I can crochet now with my eyes closed, no problem. Thankfully not many projects require that. I can't be held accountable for falling asleep if I'm required to keep my eyes closed for any period of time. I've made many baby blankets, scarves, full-sized blankets, shrugs, hats - all because of my the patience of my sweet Mama Bert.

I think it's important to pass along these skills to our children, grandchildren and in this case, great grandchildren. I don't have kids of my own but maybe one day I will. Meantime, I'll share my skills with my nieces and nephews in hopes that they'll one day be able to tell stories about how they learned fillintheblank from their crazy Aunt Woo Woo. And I'm sure I should be working on a blanket right now. Seems like everyone is having babies these days!

My weekend secret.

Happy Monday. I would love to be able to tell you what I worked on this weekend but, 'tis the season, it's a Christmas present. I can tell you it's a quilt and the focus fabric is so perfect for the recipients that I can hardly stand it. The quilt top is completed - I think it took maybe 6-8 hours total so it came together quickly - so up next is the quilt sandwich then the quilting itself. I don't have room in my house to lay it all out properly so I asked the folks at my quilt shop if I could use their classroom tables for putting together the sandwich and they said I could. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get there with enough time to get it all put together before they close up but it will happen soon. I won't be able to stand it for much longer!

Meantime, here are the accent fabrics being sewn into blocks. Can't wait to show you the whole, finished project!

The fabric store might be calling my name. Again.

I promise this is the last entry about the quilt. But, it's done! With a new thimble in hand (on finger?) I finished the binding. I was finally able to wash it to get the chalk lines off and thankfully it held up and didn't fall apart. Yet. It's cozy and sweet and I just love it. I might just be inspired to start another one. No other project is jockeying for my attention right this very second. Could it be that I'm able to stay consistent from one quilt to a second quilt without wandering elsewhere? Who could imagine such a thing?

And thanks to everyone for their kind words the last few days. I'm really liking this blogging thing.

Thimble me this.

As it turns out, hand sewing the binding on my quilt isn't going to take as long as I had originally thought. It's a lap quilt so it's not huge but I still thought it would take longer than it is. I started on the whip stitching just after work last night followed by a little more after a dinner out and I'm nearly 3/4 of the way done. I think I'll have that sucker done tonight!

That said, mama needs a new thimble. My grandmothers would not be proud to see me hand sewing without a thimble! I found one in one of my sewing boxes but it's just too darn big. And I know I have another one that fits better somewhere in that house but I can't for the life of me find it. So, after a trip to the alterations shop after work (that's right, I can make a quilt but I don't know how to hem my own pants. Judge away.) I'll be heading to Hancock or the quilting store for another thimble that fits. And now that I'm so close to finishing this one, maybe I should start thinking about my next quilt... check in with me next year to see if it's lying around the house, half-finished with no binding. I'm sure I'll have a *very* good story as to why it's not done.

Quilt of the year.

My fingers are sore this morning from removing what felt like 90 kajillion safety pins from the quilt I'm trying to finish. I have the binding sewn to the quilt top so all that's left is to whip stitch it to the back of the quilt and, after a wash to make sure it all stays together, it will be done. It's been a year in the making.

I started a quilting class last fall at Intown Quilters here in Decatur, GA. It's one of the best, if not THE best fabric shop, I've ever been to. I'd always wanted to learn to quilt (shocker - let's just add it to the list) so I was excited when I learned they offered classes. Beginners Machine Quilting 101 here I come! There were three sessions of I think 4 hours each. We started with cutting and piecing, learning how to properly press our seams and join our pieces so that everything lined up just right. We moved on to sandwiching and the actual quilting part. Binding was the last class but I had to miss it. My stepfather Chas, who my mother had dated since I was in 5th grade, had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in August 2007. A year and a few months later, during which time he and my mother finally married after more than 20 years, he was finally letting go. Being there for my mother was more important than learning how to finish a quilt.

That was the weekend before Thanksgiving last year. Early that Sunday morning after Thanksgiving, Chas passed away at home.

I have a goal to finish this quilt before Thanksgiving. I will stay focused on just this quilt, for once. I'll sew my fingers to the bone if I have to. For my mother more than anyone, it's been a year of "firsts" - and this month has been hitting her hard. Just like being with her was more important than learning how to bind, focusing on finishing the quilt is more important to me than flitting around from one thing to another. I can, and will willingly, put my erratic behavior aside in order to complete this one project, if only to commemorate a year of life without Chas.

It's been a hard year for all of us. Maybe this quilt will give us all a little warmth and comfort as the second year begins.

My busily varied weekend.

Just this weekend I worked on adding bails to jewelry pieces, made 30+ candles for Christmas presents, bought fabric for storage bags for a few banners and pulled out an incomplete quilt so I can finish it.



From this quick rundown I think you can tell I don’t focus on one thing for very long. Yep, you guessed it. I’m erratic when it comes to crafting.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy every single thing that I do. Quite the opposite. It’s that I enjoy doing so many different things that I can’t stick with any one thing for very long before I’m drawn back to an old favorite or I start the journey down the path of a new hobby. I even have two Etsy shops – one for sewn things and one for jewelry – and sometimes it’s a problem. I get engrossed in one or the other and the remaining shop gets neglected.

All that said, I don’t know how to fix my wandering craft eye. Maybe being an erratic crafter isn’t such a bad thing. That is unless you’re talking about storage space for all the various and a sundry tools and accoutrements required for so many different interests. If that’s the case, then yes, it’s a bad thing. I am officially out of space.