To have, to have not

I have stomachache this morning. I have a meeting with the tax guy. He filed an extension and it is time to figure this all out. 

I have always had an uncomfortable relationship with money. Growing up pretty poor, my mom was always worrying about it. Then I had my very poor moments, when I worked 2 jobs to just survive. 

Then in my 30's I had a job that I could afford to relax a little but I never relax too much, because as a child with my past, chaos, alcoholism, turmoil ... you are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Then the last ten years of my working life I was making remarkable money but even then I had to contend with David's constant overspending and was even more nervous then in my poverty-stricken days before I had no control. I  worked and worried about paying bills. David never thought much of paying bills so I was always holding on to every penny. I worked, worked and freelanced and never felt safe. 

Now I have sufficient money to survive if I am very careful, so why can't I just relax? So meeting with the tax buy is making me very nervous this morning. When is life ever just stress-free?  

The flies are all but gone, but that took longer than I liked. Still have not found a source. They have about to drive my around the bend. 

I am watering too much. Because the tree is gone, the grapes that protected them are gone, honeysuckle fighting to come back ... the hydrangea are taking a heat-hit with this incredibly hot weather. Thankfully, this morning is cool. I guess if the weather keeps warming up I will have to rethink having hydrangeas.

I am still trying to figure out some  affordable solution to replace the privacy consideration that I had from the tree. 

 VS. today

Andrea Myers is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on textiles, paper, installation and the space between two and three dimensionality through abstraction, patterning and saturated color. Instragram.

Little pieces of joy!

Postage Stamp Quilt, c. early to mid 1900s

Red Pepper Quilts 

Postage stamp quilt–all 1″ squares! Made by Jerri Szlizewski

Lynn Carson Harris

 

Quilting and thinking of Peggy

I found a quilting blogger who lives in this state on Wednesday's Child this morning. I love to find new bloggers. You know when you think you have seen every blog, every website, nothing new then you find one. It is exciting. I mean, I know I have seen "every website" but it just feels like it sometimes. Anyway, from there, I found a bunch of other quilting sites that got me all excited. Recalculating is a quilting, artist, blogger,.

I sure wish my M-I-L, Peggy, was still around so I could buy her some of these quilting patterns from Whole Circle Studio for Christmas. She was such a great quilter! Technical, organized, a mathematician. I am just a hack when I tried to quilt. I mean that didn't mean I loved it any less but my quilts are more rough folk art than technical works of art. When she would visit we could go to all the local quilting stores. She made us some beautiful quilted pieces and I treasure them. When she moved out of her home into assisted living. David, his sister and brother  went to Kansas to help her pack up and clear out. It literally broke my heart to think of her having to get rid of all of her fabrics and quilting supplies. I put myself in her shoes and just cried.

But guess what? David brought boxes and boxes and boxes of treasures home. Once when she moved and the second time when she passed away. Most of those boxes are unopened in the basement. We never got around to opening them with the kids here and all the stuff going one. I saw those boxes the other day.

It might be time to get Mason involved in some sewing and quilting fabric hoarding ... you know, pass it on to the younger generation. When I get the table cleaned off, I am going to set up two sewing machines, dig through all of those boxes and Mason and I are going to get busy making our own Gee's Bend type of quilts!

Busy, sewing hands are happy hands

Who is mentally competent? 

After reading The Thread Catcher and looking at how active all the guilters blogs are on her sidebar, I am starting to think it is the quilters are the sanest, busiest folks making through these rough times!  

Found this, maybe I will get Mason and I on the sewing machine!

Susana Allen Hunter

The are amazing! The Improvisational Quilts of Susana Allen Hunter makes me very happy. And I really want to dig out my sewing machine!  Me = working + sneezing + cleaning up pup pee.

Passage Quilting

I have blogged about Sherri Lynn Wood's Passage Quilting back in 2008. "Beginning with the architecture of the clothing, these quilts are pieced without a predetermined pattern. This process provides the maker an opportunity to examine his or her life patterns." It is such a lovely idea, I wish I had my grandmothers clothes to make a quilt! Via Haute Nature.

Material Obsession and Joe the Quilter.

Eleanor McCain

Eleanor McCain's art quilts make my heart race! Via Anakin Anakku on Pinterest.

Worn and Weathered

The wonderful blog, Worn and Weathered, celebrating the beauty of all that is worn and weathered and

The Silly BooDilly and a great tutorial about Pojagi Machine Stitch Seam and many other quilt projects.

Waking up early

Even the dogs look at me at 4am and think, can't you just sleep in today? You can see it, they are annoyed that their heating blanket is getting up. They roam around trying to find another warm place to sleep. And they are not happy.

Woke up early thinking about quilting after Tara came over to go through my fabric stash for some project she is up to. Found quilts I had started and stacks of fabric that I had in mind for a quilt. THAT was the first thing on my to-do-list in my first month of unemployment. So, move over computer my sewing machine is taking over for awhile. Speaking of, I must step away from the computer and very soon. Spending much too much time sitting here, way too much multi-tasking.  I finished my 4th postcard to add to my Bird Series to go up on Etsy.

So back to my quilt search this morning. Of course, Denyse Schmidt and Lisa Call are a great inspirations. It might be small, but I love this modern doll quilts from Enjoy this beautiful day.

This is cool, Ed Pegg's Math Games' Square Packing and downloads for Squaring Squares, Rectangles and Triangles.

The Modern Quilt Guild, maybe I should join up.

Lots of inspiration at the long thread and this beautiful quilt made from City Park by Cherry House Quilts.

Patchwork Quilts at Canadian House & Home and The Company Store's Quilts.

Patchwork: Pattern Maker

Victoria and Albert Museum - Patchwork: Pattern Maker via not martha.

I just tried it and it is fantastic. It also generates a pdf of your uploaded image transformed into a quilt.

Kiss Ass Quilts

"A one-of-a-kind rock quilt won't match your curtains." Created by Boo Davis, a designer, illustrator and quiltmaker living in Seattle. My friend at work turned me onto the site he just put together. I squealed with delight when I saw them! Kriss also told me about Ina which is the first audiovisual archive center in the world and the first digital image databank in Europe. (and I just discovered they have an English option!). Can you imagine all that archival material! Two kick ass sites in one day, it was a good one. Merci, Kriss.