Friday, September 26, 2014

Adventures in Quilt Making

For the past few weeks I have ventured into the world of quilt making.  Trust me, it's harder than it looks!  My grandmother, Norma Fehler, who is now in her nineties, has been making quilts for as long as I can remember.  She's made a full size quilt for each of her 6 grandchildren, and a few of the great grandchildren I'm sure, before her age got the better of her.  She also spent years as part of the quilting group at her church, where God only knows how many hours they spent around the quilting table, creating elaborate blankets for all kinds of things.  I remember being a child sitting on the floor next to her while she and the ladies stitched away, with the small project she'd given me to learn with.   My quilt has always been a cherished possession, a physical manifestation of my grandmothers skill, creativity, and love.  She liked to make quilts with dolls, but I wanted cats.




That day sitting on the floor at my grandma's feet was a long time ago, I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6.  Since then I've grown up, I graduated collage, got married, and moved to 'the big city.'  I've realized that my parents and grandparents are much smarter than I ever gave them credit for!  With the deaths of both my grandfathers and the realization that I don't get to ask them any more questions about their lives and what they've learned, I've decided not to make the same mistake with my grandmothers.  So, I went to Kentucky to visit Grandma Fehler, and ask her to teach me to quilt...and the adventure begins!

As soon as I told her what I wanted to do she took me to her quilting room, a small bedroom with bright red carpet, equipped with quilting books, magazines, a work table, an old sewing machine, and a closet full of fabric in plastic tubs that she's amassed over the years.  She proceeded to have me pull out nearly every tub and take all the fabric I wanted.  She also sent me home with a rotary cutter, cutting mat, a bias square, ruler, a bag of thread, and a bag of stencils and patterns.  As well as a basic 'how to' book with 101 different block patterns, and a history book of Appalachian quilting traditions.  Among these things I found fabric that had been used in the quilt she made for me, as well as unused blocks, and the stencils she used to make my quilt.  With a box full of supplies, I traveled back to Chicago to get started.

After my first failed attempt:

I choose a different pattern with pieces that are all the same...it may not look easier, but trust me, it is!  I know how to sew, I can make clothes, and am pretty good at it actually!  But piecing together a quilt is not the same, while some of the basic skills are transferable, many of the rules in sewing clothing just don't apply!  For example, when you're sewing clothes, you have to alter the pattern to fit your body, lots of curves and improvisation.  In quilting, it's science, each piece has to be a perfect geometric shape to fit in with the other shapes so the seams all line up and there isn't extra fabric where there shouldn't be.

Where I had to stitch together a place where the seams didn't line up.

Where there was too much fabric, creating a weird bubble.

This blatantly obvious example of seams not lining up. 
...It's a little exhausting.  

My first few blocks were coming out pretty good, and because my grandmother is just as computer literate as most other ninety year old women, I took a picture, sent it to my parents, who printed it out and showed my grandma, who (because she can't hear you on the phone) gave her thoughts and advice to my parents, who called and relayed them to me...this also is a little exhausting!

I worked feverishly to piece together the entire quilt, and after pulling out my quilt Grandma made me (many times) to see how she did things, I had the thing put together.  As if that part wasn't hard enough, now I had to cut a huge piece of fabric for the back, and get batting (or stuffing) for the center.  One important thing about batting, get something that won't shrink, or preshrink it.  Otherwise, when you wash the quilt, the center with shrink and the rest of the fabric won't.  I have no idea what that will look like, but that's what Grandma told me!

While at the store I went to the quilting section to find a hoop (the only thing Grandma didn't have for me) and saw an entire shelf of huge packs of safety pins.  I should have bought them.  I have a total of 4 safety pins, and I discovered the best way to hold together the three layers of the quilt while you're stitching is with safety pins.  I laid out the three layers and started basically sewing it together using obscenely large stitches between each block (something my mother told me she once saw her grandmother do).  Realizing that I'd smoothed out the top layer and not the bottom layer and ended up with a really bunched up back and had to take out all the stitches and do it over again.   As you can see, the cat was pretty excited about it.

She really didn't make the process any easier!


Once that was finished, I got to start stitching.  I found a few stencils from the bag of them from Grandma, and began to trace and stitch...trace and stitch.  It's a very long process!  For about 5 seconds I considered using the same boarder pattern that Grandma created herself and used on my quilt.  I feel like it's obvious why I decided against this.



During this entire process I was continually sending pictures for my parents to take to my grandma.  Once it really began to take shape and look like a quilt, my dad told me Grandma was impressed with my work.  I was doing it right!  This seasoned quilter looked at my very first quilt and was impressed!  Deep down I think we all want to do something our parents and grandparents will be impressed by.  I've never had a really close relationship with my Grandma Fehler, they lived 30 mins away, went to a different church, I just didn't see them that much, and really didn't have much to bond with them over.  Now I feel like I have finally found something to connect with her through.  This process has not just been about my learning how to make a quilt, it's much more than that.  It's been about getting to know my grandmother, learning from her before I can't anymore.  I have learned invaluable lessons from my grandparents.  I am so incredibly blessed to have them, and I believe I am a better person because of them.

This past Tuesday, I finished my quilt.





 I even added a little tag with my name and the date, just like Grandma did with all of her quilts, they are after all, works of art. 



Now I can't wait for Thanksgiving, when I'll travel back to Kentucky to show my finished work to my grandmother, and teacher. 







I hope she will be proud of me.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Status: Employed!

Finally I get to post this post!  My very first post on this blog was about not having a job.  I've been interviewing for jobs since I left my last one, but haven't been able to find the right fit.  I've been working to better my business in the mean time.  The last few weeks I've been working on a quilt (more about that adventure later!) and I've been going through a long interview process with a chainmaille jewelry company.  I got the job!

Part of the appeal of this job is that it will fit perfectly with my business!  The woman who started the company, and still owns and runs it, started it from a spare bedroom in her home, much like what I'm trying to do!  They also support their employees in having their own enterprises.  I'm hoping that I can learn a lot about starting a business from working there, and that it will motivate me further to pursue my own dreams.

I found that it is incredibly difficult to stay motivated.  I started a different project a few weeks ago, quilting, as well as focusing so hard on trying to find a job, I kind of lost sight of my goals.  It's hard to keep to a schedule and it's hard to keep my eyes on the goal.

I'm hoping with a job schedule to keep I'll be able to set a solid schedule outside of work.  In the mean time I'm working on a few new posts that will be published soon!  I've been working on a quilt, a new painting, and some new photos that I have a lot to write about!

More on all that soon!  I only wanted to share my news!