Pondering...

Sometimes, a quilt idea comes full-blown in my mind and I rootle through my stash and simply start sewing. I have no real plan, not sure if I have all the right fabrics, and usually am rather fluid on exactly what the pattern will be. I piece it together as I go; watching the colors unfold, the patches fall into place, the vision in my mind becoming a reality. I sew because I want to see how the final quilt will look.

I write the same way. I start with an idea and then I start piecing it together, watching the characters unfold, the situation fall into place until the story in my mind becomes a reality. I write because I want to see how the story ends.

Just pondering my choices of creativity and noting the similarities. I've been quilting all evening and just finished the quilt top. It was an idea I got from my niece, Katie. She used bold colors...I used pastels. The quilt top looks exactly the way I wanted it to look - sweet, innocent and girly. I hope the recipient likes it.

And now, I'm off to bed.

Bemused....

I've been quilting for about 15 years now. I inherited a ton of fabric from my adopted grandmother's stash, my husband's grandmother's stash, his aunt's stash and my mother-in-law's stash. I also had a scrap stash of my own from living in the Phillipines and having my own seamstress sew all our clothing. And then there were friends. Some I knew, some I barely knew. They'd find out that I sewed and they'd bring over boxes of fabric from their grandmothers, mothers or sisters. Whenever I helped someone sew stuff, like costumes or whatever, they'd give me any leftover fabric. (I came back from Guam with 15 dishpacks - the tall boxes - filled with fabric).

With all this fabric I've made over 150 quilts. They've mostly been given away. Some went to charitable causes, some went to family, friends and friends of friends. People would ask me to make a quilt for some reason or another and I'd do it. It was easy to simply give them away because usually I was able to use the fabric that was given to me. I never much thought about the time I put into the quilts I gave away. I figured people would pay me, or they wouldn't. And none ever did. Yep, all those quilts and no one ever paid me.

So it is with great surprise that I'm now being paid to quilt! It started with a little set of coasters I made as a giveaway for my books. Buy my book, enter to win a set of quilted coasters. I also made a little fabric envelope and then used a photo my husband took to make some little folded cards that fit in the envelope. That was a door prize, you didn't have to buy a book to win it.

My friend, Nelson, at the Calvert Hotel, loved my little coasters and stationary sets and asked for a few to sell. He sold out within weeks. He asked for more. So I made a few more, plus some little tablerunners.

Yesterday, someone was viewing my house and saw a quilt I'd made. She offered to buy it. I sold it to her for a fair price today. She then informed me that the real estate agent would be calling about ANOTHER quilt!

All these years. All those quilts. All the networking, parties and socializing I did and never sold a single quilt.

And now, by a sheer fluke one of the few times I've left home and one of the few times I've had folk IN my home since we moved here...and I'm selling my quilts and quilties right and left.

Life is strange. LOL

Busy life...

Life has been extraordinarily busy, and yet none of the things I had planned to do are done! Work was hectic for bit, but now its slowed down SOME. We shall see what I get done in the coming months.

I DID finally finish the last of the Christmas quilts for one sibling's family, which means I can now mail this brother's package. Once they get it, I'll post pictures of the quilts. They read my blog occasionally and I want it to be a semi-surprise! LOL One down...a couple more to go!

I still have a couple more quilts to make, but they are small. I have this idea to try out and I even know who to try it out on...quilters think like that - we see a sewing technique we want to try and then we think of a person we can make a quilt for so we can "practice" the technique.

In dog news, everyone is getting along, which is quite good. Mudball...I mean Chantry, enjoys digging in the yard. It rained Saturday. We were waiting to show the house to potential buyers. Mudball made it past Richard and when we tried to catch him, he thought it was a game. Jack Russell terriers are FAST. Richard and I looked like Laurel and Hardy falling over ourselves, feinting left and right, trying to catch one little dog who was having the time of his life. It didn't help that Echo and Flint decided to join in. Amidst screams of "There he is! Catch him!" we had three dogs running back and forth not knowing the rules of the game, but wanting to play anyway! Amidst the bleating cries and cringing as Mudball continued upon his destructive, yet gleeful path with joy de vivre, were two other dogs, running, blocking and generally getting in the way.

By the time we caught him we not only had to bathe him, we had to mop ALL the tile floors (kitchens, bathrooms, hallways), vacuum the living room, the dining room and my office, clean a few streaks off some walls and wash the throw rugs. Its a really good thing he's so cute. Otherwise, I'd have to kill him.

Off to work on the next quilt!

Addendum hours later: I did a very bad thing. Someone came to view the house today - in fact, two someones. After dinner, I moseyed into my office and puttered on the computer, then finally got up to peruse my quilting stuff to decide if I really wanted to work on the next project or not. There on my work table was a note. "If you are selling, I'd like to buy." With a name and phone number. At first I thought, "house?" and then I realised...she was wanting to buy the quilt! But which one? I have 3 hanging on the walls, one draped over the ironing board and the one I had just finished. The note was a sticky back - it could have fluttered off any of them! Finally, I worked up the courage and called her, knowing that no one in their right mind would pay me what the quilt was actually worth. People usually nearly faint at my feet when I mention price. Being unsure, I asked her to tell me what SHE thought it was worth. She did. She not only knew what it was worth - she actually OFFERED that much or MORE, she wanted it that bad. Greed warred in me for about 3 seconds, but I shoved it aside.

And I sold her the quilt for the price it was worth...and no more.

I now have to make a certain someone ANOTHER quilt...it was a Christmas present! ACK! Why do I do these things?

And More Quilties...

These are the notecards...the cards are made on my computer from photos that my husband took. The shamrock on the green card is from the free graphics offered at Pat's Web Graphics.






These are the quilted coasters. I make them in sets of 8 and tie with a matching ribbon.

What have I been doing, you ask?

I've been quilting. Seems a friend of mine who owns an antique shop has taken a shine to the little quilty goodies I give out to my readers as prizes! He asked me to make up a few things to sell at the annual Pulpwood Queen's Author "Girlfriend Weekend 2006." The event will be 1/20-1/22/06. So, in addition to sending along a few autographed copies of my books, I sent some quilty goodies!