A Prairie Home Quilts

No quilting makes a quilting blog rather dull. I haven’t done any personal quilting in over 8 weeks and even the quilting I’m committed to doing for others has been a little sparse so I don’t have any pictures to show. (My feeling of apathy is making me look like a flake, but unfortunately my apathy won’t let me care either.)

I thought I’d share a few links to Barn Quilts. If you haven’t seen them, they are old barns with 8′ x 8′ quilt squares on them. I think they are really neat but then, I like old barns AND quilts. It seems these barns have become tourist attractions with bus tours and everything. This Ohio old barn website has quilt barn pictures from Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee as well as other types of barn photos.

These are a few of my favorites:

If I ever make it back to NY to fulfill my homesteader-wannabe-wishes, and my property has an old barn, I’m going to have to have an 8′ x 8′ quilt square on it.

I’m in the middle of revamping several of my websites–this one included–so I haven’t gotten a lot of piecing done in the last month. The need to have a little more income is forcing me to work on “work” related things. :) I thought I’d make some posts as I update and rearrange things here and at my other quilting website. My next post is about the first-ever finished quilting project.

I’m searching for my niche this year… someplace that feels like a comfortable fit. As I’ve spent time over this last week or so updating my quilting journal, setting up this blog and then answering the questions posed in the “ABC’s of My Quilting Style” meme, it’s given me a chance to pause and reflect on my quilting.

I’ve tried to take some of these thoughts that are swirling and twirling around in my head and put them down on paper and make some sense of it all. A task much more daunting than I think I’m up to. LOL Definitely a project that requires chocolate! Just looking over my list of WIPs and Some Day Quilts made me realize that I have a lot of ideas of my own that I need to persue. (As a side note here: A dear friend and I used to refer to ourselves as “the idea women” during a stint as business partners together–we came up with dozens of ideas for products but didn’t even get half a dozen into production. LOL I will probably never be at a loss for ideas!) I’m having a hard time trying to get my thoughts down in words, though; so I’ve decided for now to just leave it as a vague inclination. I’ll just let the process evolve and unfold.

I want to create and play and experiment like a “mad” scientist in his lab; only instead of chemicals, test tubes and such, I want to create, play and experiment with quilting fabrics, tools and techniques. And I want to put the ideas in my head into motion and onto fabric. I know what I like to see in quilts, and I know what I want to try out in my first “experiment.” :) I guess that’s good for now.

I can relate to several comments Roberta Horton says in her book, Scrap Quilts: The Art of Making Do. One thing she says is:

“People often become folk artists when they retire. First of all, they have more time to do the things they’ve always wanted to do. With age comes confidence. We know who we are. At some point folk artists cease worrying about what others think. There’s an honesty to folk art. The maker is saying, ‘Here it is, like it or lump it.’”

I’m going to be “officially” done homeschooling in June. Although I’ve really not had to be totally involved in schooling for sometime, it feels like a “retirement” of sorts. I think I’m ready to become a quilt folk artist. :)

Piecing: 11 days of 16

on this blog, at least. :) I saw this on Julie W.’s blog, but Debra has tagged us all.

THE ABC’S OF MY QUILTING STYLE

• A- Artist? Yes, I am and you are, too! One hundred years from now any quilts you or I have made will be hanging on someone’s wall or in a museum (if it’s well-preserved enough) as art. Therefore, you and I are artists–quilt artists. (I realize you were looking to read about my favorite quilt artists but I’m going to save that for another post.)
• B- Best Blogging Buddies? I don’t have one yet, but I do read a few quilty, homesteading, and spiritually uplifting blogs on occasion.
• C- Crazy or Sane Quilting? Hopefully somewhere in between; somewhere that will let me go either way when the mood hits.
• D- Dyeing or Stamping? Would like to try dyeing some day.
• E- Essential Item? A sewing machine in good working order.
• F- Favorite Fabrics? Definitely batiks. I could buy them just to buy them but I don’t because I’m committed to not acquiring a large stash… I *will* use what I buy and I *will* only buy what I’ll use!
• G- Great Quilt Design? Uses a range of tints, tones, and shades in each color (or hue, if you prefer) and a large variety of fabrics… if 5-6 is good; 50-60 is better! (I hope I used all those color terms correctly. I can never remember all that color theory stuff. LOL)
• H- Hand or Machine Quilt? Both. I love to hand quilt; but being practical, I saw the need for a machine quilting setup. I want to get more quilts done!
• I- Indispensable Notion? A sharp blade in my rotary cutter. Oh, and my rotary cutter must be able to cut both for left-handed as well as right-handed people without turning the blade because I switch hands rather than turn the fabric.
• J- Janome or Bernina? Bernina and Brother
• K- Kits or Original Designs? Original designs. I agree with Julie W., who said, “Picking fabrics is my favorite part of quilting!”
• L- Life in the Studio is? Better than chocolate.
• M- Most Projects Made in One Year? I haven’t really been quilting that long (since 2003) nor that consistently until last summer (July 2006) so the answer is five. (See “Completed Quilts 2006″ in sidebar)
• N- Number of Gadgets? Hmm, I dunno. Do I need to count? You can’t make me. LOL
• O- OH, I wish I hadn’t. . . . .? Joined three different email groups in 2006 that were all working on year-long quilting projects because I haven’t kept up with the pace.
• P- Pet Peeves about Quilting? I *do not* enjoy putting binding on a quilt in the summertime. It’s just too hot here in the desert to be sitting under a quilt even in the air conditioning.
• Q- Quilt Show? Would like to go to Houston or Road to CA some day. I will go to the local one put on by the quilt guild and one in Henderson, NV put on by the larger guild our local one belongs to.
• R- Reason to Rip Out? I like to be precise, but only rip out when the mood strikes. Life is too short and I want to get quilts done!
• S- Sewing or Knitting? I can knit, but quilting is my passion!
• T- Tag, you’re it! If you haven’t already done this one, consider yourself tagged.
• U- UFOs? I don’t like to think of them as UFOs… I have 20 WIPs (that’s all I’m admitting to) and 3 UFTs.
• V- Vexing Quilt Pattern? Would probably be something with a lot of curves that required more pinning than I like to do.
• W- Wishlist Item? Max Throat for my PC Quilter
• X- Xtra Fabric you will never use? Around twenty southwest-looking FQs and about 8 yards of other southwest fabric that I bought to make a quilt for my parents’ southwest decorated bedroom, who later decided to go with a northwoodsey, cabin-like decor in their new bedroom. [sigh] I don’t like southwest decor…
• Y- Your Biggest Goof? Marrying my ex-husband?? No, no, just kidding… He’s really an all right guy and I do have 4 charming and beautiful children as a result of my marriage. You meant quilting, right? I try to forget them so I can’t think of a *biggest* goof; however my *latest* goof was telling DD-R that I’d machine quilt her 110″ x 110″ quilt on my machine quilting frame (see post: The Quilt That Was A Bear)
• Z- Zip! (and voilá it’s done!) That would have to be my springtime garden because I don’t see how I’m going to get *it* done and quilt, too!

I was just trying to figure out how to put up the html coding for the quilting webring and messed everything up! I guess I won’t be getting as much piecing done today as I thought. LOL Okay, back to work trying to fix this mess. Maybe a different theme. . .

Update later in the day: I’ve spent the day updating to the latest version of WordPress and trying to get widgets installed so I haven’t done a lot of piecing. I also haven’t gone grocery shopping nor to the LQS–have put that off until tomorrow. I changed the theme and hope to have widgets working soon so I can update the sidebar easier and add the code for the quilting webring among other things. When I reinstalled WordPress, of course, it deleted all the others links and pages I’d created earlier in the week. I’ll have to spend some time tomorrow fixing all that up again. [sigh]

I’m off to do some more piecing before I go to bed.

Piecing: 5 days of 5