1,000th Post Celebration

This post is number 1,000 for Fleur de Lis Quilts!  I can barely believe it!  Not quite five years ago I began blogging with one intent: to write about my quilting and have a way of documenting my growth as a quilter, teacher and human.  At 50 it became important to me to look back on my life and see what kind of difference I was making in the world.  

At first I was uncomfortable with telling the world about myself. I'm not a shy person, but it took a bit of humility to convince myself that my truth could be shared.  I read many, many other blogs and just jumped in.  Eventually, I became comfortable with more than just blogging about my quilting, teaching, and life.  I've even begun writing about my family.  I've sense taken on another purpose: that of sharing our beautiful state and our traditions.  

Just as I've grown into blogging, I've grown in quilting.  As a writer I've had several tutorials posted on Totally Tutorials and a couple of quilt patterns published in The Quilt Pattern Magazine. 

As a quilter I've seen "Reflections in Grey" juried into QuiltCon 2014, several of my small quilts were sold to raise money for Alzheimer's through AAQI.  (It is now over, but you can read an article about AAQI here.)  Finally, I received a request from American Made Brand to create the Louisiana license plate block for their quilt representing all 50 states.  The finished quilt was shown in Houston in 2014.  In these almost five years, I have grown as a quilter, a teacher, and a writer/blogger.  But there are others to thank for this, my husband Richard, especially. Knowing that he is the butt of oh, so many remarks, he takes it all in stride and turns much of it around on me.  I sometimes even deserve it.

Richard and I cannot take any credit, though.  Since I occasionally write about my Catholic beliefs, you have likely already figured that I give God credit for all that's been accomplished. Preaching to come later, however.  

Tonight is about celebrating all that He has allowed and given: growth, learning, and YOU!  My readers are a great inspiration. Your views and comments encourage, inspire, and reassure.  So a huge part of this celebration is saying thank you.  Thank you for coming back again and again.  Thank you for reading my silliness and not calling me goofy on a daily basis. Thank you for everything you offer in suggestions, comments, and questions.  Thank you for including me at guild meetings, in blog hops, in online quilt bees and so much more. Thank you for writing your own blogs, for having blog parties, for the giveaways, for everything you do as a quilter and blogger. 

AAQI Quilts for Sale

While writing Sunday night's blog, I wanted to include photos of small art quilts as examples.  I made and donated several quilts to AAQI and decided to check on their progress.  I discovered that they are posted on the AAQI website.

I thought some of my readers might be interested in knowing which quilts of those I have donated are currently up for sale.  The basic information is mostly the same for each quilt, so it appears at the end of a segment.

12,240 - The Old Home Place

 12,241 - Christmas Cabin

12,242 - Sunbonnet In Blue  

Mary Marcotte

Evergreen, LA USA

Width: 9" Length: 12"

Materials/Techniques: Cotton fabric, batting, pieced backing with appliquéd and embellished Sunbonnet Sue.

Artist Statement:

I made this quilt to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research and to show my support for the AAQI. Contact Mary

Dedication: All of my AAQI quilts are made and donated in memory of my mother, Ellen Bourque, who had Alzheimer's. She was a beautiful woman and friend, and I miss her every day.

This quilt has Fast Finish Triangles.

 

  12,273 - A Feather in My Cap

 

12,275 - Fractured Memory

 

12,276 - Wish You Were Here

 

12,277 - Scrollwork in Cotton

 

Mary Marcotte

Evergreen, LA USA

Width: 12" Length: 9"

Materials/Techniques: Quilters cotton, batting, embellishments.

Artist Statement: All of the Alzheimer's Art Quilts that I make are meant to honor my late parents, Ellen and Riley Bourque. Mom was an Alzheimer's patient, and while my sisters and I helped, dad was her caregiver. Their 53 wonderful years gave them eight daughters and memories that she could not hold onto.

Contact Mary

Dedication: In memory of Ellen and Riley Bourque.

This quilt has Fast Finish Triangles.

If you're interested in purchasing any of these quilts, or any AAQI quilt for that matter, simply go to http://www.alzquilts.org/ to make your purchase.  Type Mary Marcotte in the search box and all seven of these quilts will appear.  They are priced at $35-50 each, which means that together we will raise over 300 dollars for Alzheimer's research.  My personal goal is to make and donate enough to raise $1000, so this is only the beginning.
Happy Quilt Shopping,
Mary 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: No-UFO

Here we go.....a little inspiration to help you get going on that UFO that's been sitting around for years, or maybe to get from idea to fabric to quilt sandwich, or perhaps to try your hand at free-motion quilting.  Whatever it is that's got you stonewalled, I have a few thoughts on ways to get off the wall and on the machine!

Quit calling them UFO's!  I know, it's cute and all, but the problems sometimes lie in the labels.  Instead of labeling the quilt a UFO, call it a quilt or quilt section.  The sections will be a quilt one day soon, if you think of your work as quilts rather than something that you won't finish.

Forget the original thought of the project.  Sometimes a quilt wants to be a table runner.  Sometimes it wants to be a lap quilt, not a queen.  Honor your work and listen to it.  I worked for weeks on this blue paisley quilt that, in my mind, had to be queen size.  I struggled and struggled, put it away and came back to it months later, still unable to figure out how to get a queen sized quilt out of what I had.   I finally listened to the quilt and saw that I was pushing myself to make a large quilt only because I always made full or queen.  I gave in and made a pretty little twin quilt for a granddaughter to sleep under.

Remember how to eat an elephant...one bite at a time.  In the case of quilt-making, it's one block at a time.  Don't fret over the whole thing.  Instead, focus on the one part you are working on.  Sure, there are times when you look back at what is complete, but don't let the big picture blind you from the focus of what is important right now.  This small quilt is made up of many left over pieces from other projects.  I knew only that I wanted an AAQI quilt with a theme dealing with being broken or fractured.
 

 Give it away, go on, give it.  Finish the sections by turning them into pillows, bags, or baskets and give them to friends as gifts.    Again, not every quilt must be, well, a quilt.  Once a section is sewn together, it can be any quilted project.  And quilt parts would much rather be gifts than UFO's!  The Christmas stocking here became a giveaway gift for a blog hop sponsored by Quilting Gallery.

Want to give it away but don't have a recipient in mind?  Donate small quilts made from sections to AAQI or make lap quilts for a nursing home.  This is an AAQI quilt that I made from a log cabin block I'd made for a project that just didn't work out. 

Finally, just do it!  Yes, jump in and finish the thing already!  Regardless of whether you change directions, create a gift, or finish by using your original plans, just get to it.  I finished several projects last year (2012) by forcing myself to work on UFO's.  I promised myself that I would finish one UFO before starting any new project.  This allowed me use the new projects as incentive to finish the UFO projects.  It worked--I wrapped up all but one of the UFO projects in the closet.

You can do it, too!  It's a matter of getting to it and staying there.
Have a great week of knocking out those no-UFO's!
Happy Quilting,
Mary

Valentines for Vets, St. Jude and AAQI

I managed a few things today.  Unfortunately none of them had anything to do with quilts or quilting.  :-(  very sad face, indeed.  But there were a few high points: we bought a new computer!  Definitely a high point! 

We had to run to WallyWorld for a few things, including a charger for the small computer we've had for a while.  The puppies chewed the charger wire and the grandchildren played games on it whilst pulling on said wire.  In the end we were worried about someone getting a charge from it. I tried to fix it but managed instead to pull the tip completely off the wire.  Oh well. 

We put the darn thing away and now, months later, we decide the older computer is too close to cardiac arrest.  We can't chance being completely without social media: we are civilized people, after all.  Where might one purchase a computer charger, groceries, birthday gift and cat food?  In this town, no place.  A few burgs over, though is good ole Walmart.  Not a fancy supercalafragalistic Walmart, but we needed stuff, not fancyschmancy.  Off we go.

Wait, there's a part of the story I forgot to mention.  We've lost the small computer.  We put it away, remember?  Yes, well, it's WELL put away.  It's so well put away that we don't know where else we might look. 

I've looked in all the places Richard has looked, and he proved me correct by checking those places again.  I distinctly remember his taking the computer away from a pair of three year old hands attached to a redhead.  He remembers handing the computer to me after rescuing it. 


Neither of us remembers where any one put the stupid little thing.  So we didn't buy a charger; we bought a whole computer.  The whole, entire package!  Well, almost. 

We got the processor and the memory, just not any programs worth mentioning.  Now I need to cough up another paycheck for a program so I can write those lovely lesson plans that I so enjoy creating.  If I knew how, I'd "borrow" the programs from the computer with the broken heart.  Alas, I don't, and her blood supply is much too weak anyway. 

 Another accomplishment: I took pictures of the little AAQI quilts.  Not pretty outside pics as I had hoped, but do I ever get pretty pictures?  Not really. 

While I had the camera out, I also snapped a few pictures of the cards and activity booklets that the Beta students made while at convention last week. In the end we have about 50 activity booklets for preteens and teens at St. Jude's Children's Hospital and about 375 Valentines for Vets that I'll send to VA health centers in our state. 

Betas in my English classes created the activities and games which I copied onto colored paper.  The Betas at convention put the booklets together and decorated them. 

My Betas also provided colored paper, markers and stickers for Beta members to make the valentines.  I'm always impressed by how many valentines they make in the one day that the service project room is open.  Of course, we do have 5,000 or so teenagers at convention, but only about 60 can fit into the service project room at any given time, and the room is open only between general sessions. 

I'll leave you with a collage of the three AAQI quilts although it's awfully small, but at 12.05 in the morning, it's beginning to look much better than it did three hours ago when I started this post.  I have no idea where the time went, except to say that most of it was spent uploading literally 1000 pictures to find the three I needed and creating the collage.  It's insane how long it takes to figure out a program like Picasa.  And I still can't make the collage larger in Blogger.  Oh well, enough already, goodnight!

Until tomorrow.
Happy Quilting,
Mary

Computer Cries

Ever get a scary message from your computer?  I get one about every 10 minutes.  It done for, I'm afraid.  We squeak by day by day, but it won't be long before I'll have to cough up the money for a new one. 

The message reads something like this:
Windows detected a hard disk problem. 
Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss, and then contact the computer manufacturer to determine if you need to repair or replace the disk.

If you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know why.  In the meantime, I've been more than a little busy at school.   It's amazing what is required to teach these days, and I'm not talking about the patience!

I did get a little sewing done.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll find a minute of daylight to photograph the projects....yes! plural! I finished a couple of AAQI quilts and have one waiting in the wings.  All it needs is binding.  So if all goes well: the sun shines and the computer works...I'll snap a few pics for you.

Fabric Baskets Revisited

Remember this scrap bucket I made back at the beginning of December?  I wrote about it here.

It sits on the top of my worktable, and I just toss fabric scraps in as I run across them.  It's been very convenient, although I do like to use up scraps as much as possible.  Then a friend called to say she had a few scraps for me.  Yahoo!  Since she tends to overbuy way more than she should, her scraps are sometimes large pieces of fabric.  

Add to that the reason for her scraps: she embellishes tee shirts for college sororities who tend to like really nice matching shirts--Vera is their favorite designer, but they often ask for other fabrics.  Anything loud and bright will work for some.  You can visit her Facebook page here to see more of her work.

AND these scraps already have iron-on adhesive attached, so they are ready for appliqueing!  Yeah, the yahoo is well deserved.  

In no time I had the scraps organized into large pieces without adhesive, solids, prints, greens and reds.  There are too many reds and greens to mix all the solids together.  


The greens are perfect for leaves, vines, and stems, which I used often, so keeping them separated works well for me.  

Of course, sorting through the scraps had me wanting to use them.  I started out thinking I would make a small quilt for the studio or for AAQI but it grew and the next think I knew, I had a quilted piece just the right size for another basket.  Oh well then, another basket would do.  

I've decided that since my friend is an artist, this basket would work quite nicely in her tee shirt business.  I plan to give it to her the next time we're together.

I think she'll like the flowers and birds.  She teaches lots of collage, which this design ended up becoming.  I used the fabric scraps that she gave me cutting out flower shapes based on the flowers in the fabrics and pressed them to the background.  Of course, I added stems and leaves but I didn't worry too much about whether the flowers came from the same fabric or not.

I really like the little basket.  It's a tad smaller than the first one I made, but it's much more creative and fun.  

Check out this black and white bird.  I don't know who the fabric designer is, but I loved the look of the flowers and decided to cut out a bird using the Accuquilt Studio die.  In fact, all the birds were cut using the same die, which has three designs on it.

 This bird is part of a fabric design.  I couldn't stand the thought of wasting such a pretty bird, so I cut it out the same way I did the flowers and ironed it on a flower so that it looks, I hope, natural.

 I'm fairly sure she'll like the fabric basket.  It's meant for the scraps she produces as a result of her tee-shirt business, but she can surely use it for whatever she likes.

Happy Quilting,

Mary

Three Little Quilts

Once upon a time there were three little quilts who all wanted to go to a special place where they could find new homes and help raise money for Alzheimer's research.

I started these little quilts two weekends ago and wrapped them up last week.  They will go to AAQI after the holidays.  I'm hoping to add another one or two before sending these off.  My goal was to get 12 to AAQI in 2012.  I don't think I'll quite make it, but I'll do what I can over the holidays to get a few more finished and on their way.

I discovered that making a couple of quilts is easy if I begin as though I'm making only one large quilt.  Each one has the same background fabric but the flowers are different.

To avoid putting flowers in the way of my cutting, I measured the background and drew a line using ink that vanishes when pressed.

From that point on, I just played, designing and dropping in flowers as I went along.  I tried to stick with the rule of three, but it's not a hard and fast rule, so I didn't worry it to death.   

After pressing the flowers into place, I went to the Bernina and stitched them down using either the BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) or one of the specialty stitches.  

On the pink flower below, I used two of the specialty stitches and like the lacy look that I achieved.  On the purple straw-flower beside it, I used the BSR and ran over the petals over and over adding several layers of thread to darken the petals and add dimension.

On some of the flowers I zigzagged the edges but on others I left the raw edges exposed.  The two toned flowers in this quilt are a good example of this.  While I sewed the purple petals, I left the blue without stitches because the other parts hold it down.

The little yellow flowers on the vine were a bit difficult because they are so small.  I planned to have more them, but once I realized how difficult they are to work, I dropped the idea and added another pink flower to fill the space.

In the end the three quilts are just the right size for AAQI, which I discovered returns any quilts that are 1/4 inch over the 9 X 12 inch limit.  I got two back earlier this month from the last group that I sent.  I was able to trim one down, but the other will not cooperate.  Trimming it takes too much away from the motif, so that one has become a small quilt in my studio.  I measured these more carefully and made sure to leave enough wiggle room for the binding.

I hope you come back tomorrow for a visit when I hope to announce the winner of the Blog Hop Party giveaway.  

Happy Quilting,

Mary