Piece O' Cake Blog

Contemplating a character...

I've been sewing this afternoon, which is in itself amazing. We have a book deadline looming and sewing is a small part of my pile of work. I can't share more than a peek but the quilts we are making are pretty!

 

Anyway, when I'm sewing my mind tends to wander and for the last few days it's been wandering to Quinn Fabray. Quinn is a character on Glee and if you haven't watched the most recent episode you might want to stop reading right now.

I love Glee! The high school drama, the music, the imperfect adults—these characters feel real to me. That said, if I knew them in real life, I'd probably lose patience with many of them.

Quinn is a character who has been through a lot but recently she pulled herself together, was going to Yale, looking forward to a great life. And then—not. At the end of the episode I felt much as I would if one of my friend's had lost a daughter. It was physical.

Several of the characters on Glee will be aging out at the end of this season. Quinn was one of them. I hate to think that she's dead, but if she died in that wreck BECAUSE SHE WAS TEXTING WHILE DRIVING maybe it will have an impact on more viewers than me. I don't text and drive but I've been known to glance at my phone. No more of that.

FYI, Steve thinks I'm crazy but then he never cried at Hallmark commercials either. I told him I'd probably dream about Quinn that night, and I did, and he thinks that's sort of wrong too. But you know, the idea that mourning the (probable) death of a TV character is wrong is exactly the reason that my wandering mind keeps going back to Quinn.

Honestly, I know the characters on Glee better than I know many of my genetic relatives. I can't help but care about these fictional characters. I've spent so much time getting to know them! Aren't there characters in books or movies or on TV that you feel the same way about?

It's the idea that we are all characters in our own dramas that is so interesting to me. Imagine yourself as a character—playing yourself in your very own life. The people we know and love (or know and don't love) inhabit our dramas as we inhabit theirs. Our lives are like a TV drama without any cameras.

In a strange way, this idea feels empowering to me. We can re-write our dramas and make changes as we need to. We have some control... until we get written out of the show...

So now I'm going back to the sewing machine.

Lots of whimsical gardens...

I spent 2 days teaching a class from My Whimsical Quilt Garden with some lovely ladies from the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild. They spent the first day of class coloring their blocks and the second day working on applique techniques.

I managed to find time to take photos of some of their handiwork to share with you. Each block is different!

Some got farther than others, but everyone learned a lot and had a good time!

And Evelyn, whose hands don't let her do handwork, worked diligently, quietly fusing and machine appliqueing her block. She, of course, was practically finished at the end of the class! I admit that the instant gratification is nice.

Where is the train?

My brother had a Lionel train when he was a kid. Lots of track - smoking engine, whistle... the works. I think it looked something like the one above.

At some point the train disappeared. Steven has never been happy about that. Mom is pretty sure it got left in the attic when they moved from the house on 17th street in Oklahoma City that I grew up in. She remembers that my dad did not want to make another trip into the attic even though she wanted him to. 

I'm in Oklahoma City teaching for the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild now and today I went by the old house. It looks good! I knocked, hoping to ask the current owner if they ever found the train. No one was home, but I had typed a letter in advance and I dropped it in the slot. I admit that I was expecting any conversation I might have with the current owner to be weird. Maybe it's better that I left the letter.

We all lose stuff. Big or little, expensive or sentimental. It's a really nice feeling to find something long lost and I would love to finally solve our family's missing train mystery. If the current or previous owner of the house found the train, used it, loves it, sold it—that's fine. We'd just like to know. 

I don't suppose any of you have turned up a 1960s vintage Lionel train?

 

The funniest card...

I am not good about sending cards. Well, that's not entirely true... I'm only good at it sporadically. My sister was very good at choosing and sending cards and my mom is too. So, even though she just lives 4 houses down, Mom sent us a valentines card....

Before I share the inside, I want to show you my mom's sweet face, flanked by Celia and Jeff...

FYI - This photo is part of several that were taken by Meredith whose conact info I am hunting. I'll add it here when I get it. At any rate, Celia set up a photo shoot when they were home at Christmas and I have some amazing new family photos. I'll share more as time goes by.

So here's the inside of the card...

My mother cracks me up!

Our world is a beautiful place...

I'm procrastinating which means that I've been clicking around on the web rather than working. I found yet another lovely photo of the Cinqua Terre, Italy, a place I very much wan to visit...

I actually found the photo on facebook, which led me to the origin of the photo, Hub09. If you click on any photo it opens them all up in a slide show. Lots of fun!

Hub09 has a blog as well - click here. I don't speak or read Italian (and I'm making a guess that that is Italian) and I decided that I didn't want to open it in English. Honestly, I like the images just fine without the text. 

Happy procrastinating!

A free motion quilting site...

I learned about Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project when I was in Florida. I have been way too busy to fully explore this site but I know you all are going to love it! 

I admit to being very impressed. This woman has quite a story (click here). She is married and has a young son and she still managed to put up a different machine quilting pattern - with a video! - every day for a year. There are 365 designs. It makes me tired just imaging it.

As I said I haven't clicked through all of the designs yet but right now, this one looks like fun. Leah calls it mesh curtain. I can see the curtain.

There is a lot more to see on her site. Click here to go to her home page. Enjoy!

I love being home!

I had a lovely time with the ladies in both Brandon and Punta Gorda, FL, even considering that I had a cold and sinus infection. That said, it's nice to be home. Believe it or not, my ears did un-stuff on the plane ride home!

I have come home to a pile of work and a happy husband. I'm feeling better - life is good. 

I wanted to share this blog post written by Alethea Ballard. She wrote a really nice post about how she used our book to applique outside the lines. Her quilt, below, is in her post. 

I love seeing how people use our patterns and ideas to make their own quilts. That's why we do what we do. Happy stitching!

More from Florida...

I left Punta Gorda on Friday after my lecture and arrived in Brandon, a suburb of Tampa. The Brandon Quilt Guild meets at a very nice church. Outside the classroom I was amazed to see a pair of sandhill cranes...

One of my stdents said that these birds mate for life and that this pair is often on church grounds. Not something I see out my window in Sherman.

I put a pillow on my class supply list. It's very handy to rest you arms on when you sew. Claudia, a woman in class, brought this pillow:

It's like a polar fleece throw, but small and with a pillow inside. No sewing!

You cut two pieces of fleece that are 8" wider and taller than the pillow you want to cover. Make cuts 4" deep, and 3/4"-1 apart into each side. Tie the two pieces of fleece together with the pillow in between. She said that kids love them and I don't doubt it. 

I had nothing scheduled for Sunday and was really looking forward to getting some work done so I was seriously unhappy to wake up to find that my sinus infection (and headache) had bounded back. I am lucky that my physician was reachable and called in a new prescription. I was thankful that I wasn't supposed to teach because I mostly just layed around feeling pitiful. I do so hate wasting a day but there you go.

Today is another full day of teaching and a lecture. I'm flying home Tuesday at the crack of before dawn. Who knows - maybe the next plane ride will un-stuff my ears!

From Florida...

I arrived in Punta Gorda, FL, last Tuesday with a cold, sinus infection, and stopped up ears. Luckily I had a prescription for the sinus infection and colds do get better. The ladies at the Peace River Quilt Guild took good care of me and I was careful to keep my germs to myself as I taught. Lots and lots of hand washing!

I didn't go out and about much in Punta Gorda because of my cold but I have to say that the hotel room was really very nice. I was at a Four Points by Sheraton that has a nautical theme. How often do you get decorating ideas from a hotel room! I decided to share them with you:

All along the window wall was an open shelf with a window seat cushion on either side of the window and baskets for stuff below. There was an opening for the air from the AC unit, but the unit itself was pretty well hidden. This simple and functional design would work well in a lot of homes.

The curtains had huge grommets at the top that the stainless steel curtain rod went through. Functional and clean-looking. The pillows on the window seats were eye-catching:

These are stenciled but they would be very easy to piece. Simple lines, simple mix of colors... I wouldn't mind having them at home.

And then there was the bathroom door...

If I ever get to build a house (not likely) I want to have sliding doors. I love the way they work and look. Don't know that I'd need the porthole window in the door, but it worked with the nautical theme.

Meet the newest Dr. Goldsmith...

Our youngest son, Jeff, is now officially Dr. Jeffrey Goldsmith, newly-minted with a PhD in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins! Celia was there for his thesis defense, as was Steve. I stayed home to work. I hated to miss the event but I was extra-special happy that Steve was there.

This is Jeff prepariing for the public presentation of his thesis. That was followed by a private session with his committee.

Celia said I could grab these photos from her blog - you can read her post here. She, and we, are very proud of the boy. Celia is, of course, responsible for the great props and for Jeff's fabulous attire.

I can't even begin to explain what Jeff does. I try - which makes his head hurt. But I am his very proud mother so I feel compelled to brag. I think it is sort of in the ballpark to say that he writes formulas that are used to interpret the data gathered by fMRIs. Much of his energy is spent with researchers working to find a cure for MS. He is insanely good at what he does. He sometimes reads my blog. Jeff, if I'm way wrong please let me know. 

He has worked incredibly hard to get where he now is. (I could go on and on, but won't.) Now he and Celia are working on what comes next. But what comes next couldn't happen without him passing his defense which he did with flying colors. Oh happy day!

Fabric mash-ups...

I like to use big, happy prints on the back of my quilts. When I see a fabric that looks like a good back, I buy 1-2 yards of it which is never enough for a whole quilt back. I do this to myself on purpose because it forces me to sew different fabrics together rather than resorting to using the same quilt over the whole back. It makes me crazy on the day I have to choose the fabric but the results always make me happy.

These are the fabrics I chose to mash together today. This is from the Floral Folio collection by Cary Phillips from Clothworks:

And this is Frog Prince from the Prince Charming collection by Tula Pink. Look close for the hidden images...

Look at them sewn together...

These are not fabrics that I ever thought about using together but darned if they don't look really good together. I love a good mash-up!

Recovering chairs...

Or I should say, re-covering chairs. I put new upholstery on my dining room chairs not that long ago. I used Scotch Guard on the chairs but it was no match for the abuse that we apparently dish out. There were stains all over the chair seats and backs and I couldn't take it any more.

I ordered a roll of laminated fabric from the Good Fortune collection from Moda. This print is perfect in the room and the vinyl coating on the fabric wipes clean. Steve removed the staples for me (which is a hard job) at a rate of one a day. I re-covered the chairs at the same pace.

Laminated fabric does not stretch so the chair backs are not as smooth as they were before but I can handle that better than the stains. The fabric doesn't feel or look too plastic-y.

I had enough left over to cover the seats of the chairs in the breakfast room as well. I hadn't realized how dirty the previous fabric was until I took it off. Ick.

What I've learned from you...

Thank you to all of you who told me what makes you buy a quilt book. Your comments have reinforced for me the importance of color, good design, and clarity and accuracy of instructions. These are all things that Linda and I work hard to do well, but we can always do better.

As I read your comments I realized that I am just like you. A good cover draws me in. Good color inside is important. I love good instructions for techniques I don't already know. 

I find myself buying a lot of books for things like fabric printing - even when I know that I am not likely to ever find time to actually do it. But the idea that I could open this book and do it makes me happy. And, you know what? The cover and the color images of the projects inside made me part with my money.

How many of you bought the Wee Folk felt people book by Sally Mavor? I still want to make a bunch of those little cute folk. Check out her website here. I had no idea until just now that her work is primarily used in illustrations. Amazing! Now there are more books to go on the list...