Mary B Quiltin’

Happy February, my quilting friends.

I’m thinking this month about a comment someone made to me a while back. She was a maker of wall hangings who said quilting should be kept small and displayed on the wall, and one should buy blankets for the bed, like everyone else.

It’s a contrast to my first show and tell where I brought the quilts I was making for my adult children. One was a queen size comforter with a watercolor bargello design in blues and black to grays with a rust accent. The other was a king sized bedspread in reds, white and blues with a trip around the world center and tilted pinwheel border. Bill and Linda had helped me design them and the sizes they wanted were queen and king. I didn’t even think to tell them to buy a blanket, though my son did hang that queen on the wall for a while. (Silly boy. It’s not even that well made.)

My husband has given up asking when I’ll finish the duvet cover I’m making for our bed. (It’s king size, too.) I do intend to finish it. I noticed some time ago that synthetic bedclothes make me sweat, so I converted my bedroom to only cotton & feather blankets and sheets. More recently I’ve discovered that the blankets weren’t necessarily at fault, but the cotton does breathe better on those sweaty nights.

So this quilter’s opinion is: I sleep better with a cotton quilt on my bed, but if you prefer a blanket, enjoy. I’ve gone from wondering what I was going to do with all the quilts I was going to have, to wondering how long it will take me to actually finish them. Maybe the ones I am using will wear out and need to be replaced about the time I get the UFOs quilted. I brought one to quilt while we were staying at other people’s houses last year. God knew we needed it—for warmth, and it’s just as warm without having the quilting completed, thankfully.

Actually, I’ve finished one UFO this year already. It’s a wall hanging that needed binding. Maybe our friend who prefers wall hangings has the right idea, if the goal is to finish what you start. (What a concept!)

Happy quilting!

“Fast away the old year passes…”
I prefer setting goals to making resolutions. A good thing about goals is you have all year to work on them and have a record of what they are and how you’re doing. The bad thing about that is they stay right in front of you in black and white, even if you’re not doing so well. A major move and job loss last year threw a major wrench into my day to day life. My list of goals (made last January) reflects that. My “numbers” are way down for many of the things I track, including finished sewing projects. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story, either. One goal I should have made major progress on (and undoubtedly did,) was going through old boxes of stuff. Unfortunately, I was so busy sorting and tossing I neglected to count how many boxes actually got done.
So it’s time to reevaluate this year, just like every year. Are the things I’m tracking and setting goals for getting me closer to my life goals? Do I have life goals? Nothing worthwhile will just happen. That’s just as true for making a quilt, finishing a UFO, writing an article or book, cooking dinner, getting in better shape, or (fill in the blank.)
I need to put some fun goals into my list, as well. (Maybe instead of some of the items that I no longer want to track.) I have an aunt who has a written goal to put together so many puzzles every year and then get rid of most of them. I don’t think she really wants to get rid of most of her puzzles, though, because she keeps buying more, but that’s a fun goal for her. And it’s fun for me to help her with it.
“Hail the new year, lads and lasses…”
Happy New Year!!! Here we go into 2010, a new year, a new decade, another fresh start!
“To us and our good fortune
Be happy, be healthy, long life!
And if our good fortune never comes
Here’s to whatever comes, … to life!”*
I sometimes wonder who thought up the bright idea to start goals in the dead of winter, anyway?! But it is what it is. If I can get a decent start now, I’ll be ready to really roll by the time the warm, sunny Spring arrives.
“May you live to see a thousand reasons to rejoice!”*
Happy quilting!
—Mary Brown
*by Sheldon Harnick, lyricist, “To Life!” Fiddler on the Roof

I Need a Little Fabric
(to the tune of “Need a Little Christmas” from Mame)

I need some fabric.
This color’s not exactly what I had in mind.
It’s just not working.
I’ll have to buy myself an early present or two.

‘Cause, I need a little fabric
Right this very minute:
Just this perfect green with red and purple in it.
Yes, I need a little fabric, right this very minute…

Black Friday’s already gone,
But my shopping isn’t done.

So fly to the quilt store;
Look for the perfect fabric that I’ve never seen.
Is this a good one?
Now I forget which colors I was matching somehow.

I should go home to my closet
and check out what’s in it.
I don’t need to shop now,
At least not this minute;
I have lots and lots of fabric
any way you spin it.
I should have looked here first, and how!

Have I got a lot of fabric, Wow!

Happy quilting!

―Mary Brown