Becky tells you what Tuesdays are all about

Tuesday is deffinitely not my favorite day of the week.  After much serious thought I think I've got it figured out.  On Monday, the day that sherry calls the first day of the week, there is so much activity in this house.  Sherry is running up and down the stairs and carrying laundry baskets.  Picking up the rugs I am standing on and wisking them out doors, after a minute or two she comes back into the house and puts the very cold and sometimes sort of wet rug back and puts it down on the floor.  Yuck, all that work I had put into making it my special place has been shaken off and replaced with... well who knows what she really does with it outside.

      Sherry doesn't play with me on Monday, but I can deal with all of this because at least she is here, which I can't say about Saturday and Sunday.  It seems that on Saturday and Sunday she and Normie are out having fun with that suitcase and the bag of glass that  she is always playing with.  Sometimes she even takes the stack of little quilts with her,  that is really awful because there is a bare spot on my table and I like to look at pretty things,  have you ever seen a stack of little quilts,  think of it as a "short stack" of  pancakes with yummy stuff on top.  Sherry calls it "embellishment" but it is better than that, it sparkles and wiggles and.. oh well, I'm getting off on a tangent. 

Let me get to my point,  it seems to me that Tuesday should be my day, they should play with my string, but oh no.  She start the day in the glass studio, and she won't let me go in there while she is cutting glass because when I jump up on the table to see the sparkly glass that she calls "dichro" she is afraid that I will cut my feet, so she closes the door.  then after she is in that room for an hour or so, she comes out and goes right to the sewing machine where she keeps my little bottle of "Kitty Cookies", she opens it and gives me one,  well no, she doesn't exactly give it to me, I have to work for it.  First I have to play with the thread and try to pull it out of the needle or one of the thread guides, I have to entertain her with my antics for at least five minutes before she finally gets out a little cookie and throws it on the floor.  This goes on all day, couldn't she just give me the cookie and let me lay there on the sewing extension table and be close to my favorite person.  She is always pushing me off the soft fabric.  I love the colors, and the batting and the way it moves under her hands. 

     Up down, up down, this goes on all day til she finally goes up to start dinner.  For pity sakes,  you see, I like to be spontaneous,  play a bit take a nap in the sun. sit on somebodys lap and take long naps, wait, lest  you should get the idea  that all I do is nap, I really work hard keeping these people from getting bored.  I will smile and have fun on Tuesdays when Sherry quits sewing and playing with glass all day Tuesday

Getting Ready to Teach a Beading on Fabric Class at Quilt foundry

         I love the opportunity to share my enthusiasm for beads with others.  It always amazes me when I meet quilters who love non-tratitional quilting, but haven't done any beading on their quilts.  To me it seems a natural step to take, and it adds so much with very little effort. 

        Lisa Spaulding, from the Quilt foundry in Maumee, Ohio invited me to teach a class in her shop and I jumped at the opportunity.  They have an active non-traditional quilt group that meets at the shop one Tuesday evening a month and I would imagine that the largest percentage of those signed up for the class come from that group.  I,ve heard so much about the group and really look forward to meeting them. 

        If a person has not done any or much beading it can be daunting preparing for a class.  What do you take, what size beads, do I need stabilizer, can I use regular needles,  do I use regular thread?  Oh my, this can convince one not to take a class.  All of us who teach or take classes , know about the suggested  materials "list" can bring an other wise gentle woman to words that she doesn't use often/never.  Sometimes we even hear about students who get everything on the list and get to class and end up not using all of it. 

        I love to make the canvas, a small quilt  (8" x 10") with all of the quilting done and the area that will be beaded all ready to be finished after the students have been taught the basics of beads, thread, needles, stabilizer and have the opportunity to make a sampler with a dozen different beading stitches.  It is a piece they can take home and feel ready to hang on the wall and brag on.  Each will receive with their little quilt a kit of beading supplies  and a  Timtex  square to practice all of their new stitches on.  It will serve as a permanent reference card for future endeavors. 

       Does this make you want to get the beads out?  Larkin Van Horn has a terrific book, Beading on Fabric, that make a great  gift for any one on your Christmas list.  Lyric Kinard also just came out with a new DVD about Beading on Quilts available through Quilting Arts.   All this talk about Bead has me waking up and thinking I have another two hours before bed time and maybe I can get a bit more work done. 

Ta Ta, as we prepare for Christmas, use your time wisely,  have happy dreams about what you got done today, not nightmares about what you have to do tomorrow.

More about naked trees

   Did any one notice that everyday Christmas is getting closer.  Funny how that starts happening every year about this time.  I remember when I was a kid it seemed that it would never get here.     I noticed that it all changed when I started being responsible for my own life.  When I was teaching (back in the days when you could still say the word Christmas in the class room without offending some one).  there were decorations, plays, music, parties and schedules to be aware of.  Since I had an income, I was responsible for my own shopping for  family and friends.  You know what I am talking about.

Next thing you know, you realize that all this shopping is expensive, so you start making presents and decorations.  Think about this for a minute, "if time equals money" you might be digging yourself into a bottomless pit into which you might be throwing a fair amount of money, especially if like me you discover a passion/obsession for this creative process.  Over the years, I have lost interest in trendy and whimsy crafts.  A Christmas card, like the one pictured above, (yes, that was my Christmas card 2 years ago) might take a few hours to create, so only very special friends, who know the value of the time=money theory got one.  (there were six of them)   For those who want the best, only made by your own hands will do.

Now, while you can still say  "I have two months left", get busy and go make a gift for those who will know the difference and appreciate it.  For the rest of them, go shopping.    George Siciliano    http://www.georgesiciliano.com  spoke at  the NQA two years ago and he told of an encounter he had with a woman at his church after he had made his first minature quilt.  She admired it and asked if she could buy it.  He responded with 'what do you think it is worth?"  He had 1,300 tiny pieces of fabric in it (yes, the comma is in the right place)  She said, "$10.00, and I would like three more to use as placemats".  that was when he decided that he would never sell one of his little treasures, he would give them to friends.  Good move George,  I feel your pain.  Now get to work, and I will do the same.

Someone asked about my teaching schedule and where to find our fused glass, contact me at  peterson@tc3net.com as I could not connect to you.  thanks.

keep your bobbins full and remember, a drop of oil keeps the repairman away

Tis the Season for Busy Little Bees

1. If you looked at the slide show of my little quilts, you will see the little quilt that is composed of four beaded hearts.  This piece is called  The Seasons of the Heart.  They captures how I see each season, the first being spring with the bright pinks and purples that I associate with that season, then we move along into the bright reds, hot pink and yellows that I think of as summer.  In the fall when the colors begin to change in preparation for the falling leaves most people find this season of great joy and warm colors, yes I agree with that, however, it is also the season that begins to squeeze the joy out me, as I know what happens next.  It gets cold, wet, the wind begins to howl  and all of my trees get stripped naked.   Winter, well, it just breaks my heart.  I wonder if life will ever be the same.  this obsession has served me fairly well because some of my favorite little quilts have been naked little trees.  Go figure.  My pastor visited me at home one time and I had to answer the phone,  When I returned to the living room he said, "do you know that are 9 pictures of dead trees in this room".  Yes, do you think I need counseling?
   

          That was a long time ago.  Now  this time of year signals all of the holiday shows we do (my husband and I)  at which we sell our fused glass jewelry and my little quilts.  We don't travel very far from home  and are not quite ready for large juried shows.  We have a tent but at this time of year it is no fun spending the weekend fighting weather issues.  You never think about breaking even if you don't spend an arm and leg for entrance and hotel rooms. 

          

           The days are full of  running between the  studio and the work room where the kiln cooking another load of glass.  A friend suggested that I should be gluing the binding on the little quilts, but my work is not, and never will be about cutting corners.  Beverly Sills is quoted as saying, "there is no short cut to any place worth going".  This morning my friend Susan Pickering Rothamel was featured on Home Shopping Network and she used pieces that I had quilted for her to embellish with her USARTQuest products and I could smile and know that even the part that no one could see was done to professional standards (Thank you Susan Cleveland) 

            The teaching schedule also kicks up a bit at this time of year as quilters want to learn something new that they can either use as gifts or decorate the house with.  For the beading class, I make a little 8 x 10 inch quilt with an oval shape in the center and a feather design quilted around the outside edge.  In the center of the oval, there will be an ornament shape drawn with pencil that they will fill with 8 different bead stitches.  It's fun, its cheerful and can be done completely in 4 hours.  (and it is completely bound when they get it)  Yes, I charge a kit fee and provide all the beads, too.