Midnight Musings Amidst the Season of Hope

FYI:  This is not quilt related. And kinda personal and sappy.

 

First a confession. 

I love Christmas. 

I love everything about it. I love that it's a beautiful time of year filled with hope and joy. I love the traditions, the hymns and carols. I love the food and indulgences. And I'm going to get real, I even enjoy the crazy chaos that seems to enter my life at this time of year. 

As I was sitting in our great room with a gray kitty purring on my lap, the lights off but for the tree and garlands; a sappy Hallmark moving playing softly in the background I spent a little time reflecting.  I have a man that loves me, even the icky parts; I've had another birthday that reminded me I'm still cancer free and here. (That alone is a miracle - not once but three times) I have friends that have become my family; I have a tribe of friends that support me even when I don't know I need it or deserve it. I'm beyond blessed. Truly blessed.




 
What I chose not to focus on is the brokenness in my own family. The people that are supposed to love you but don't. The people who are supposed to have your back but will sometimes take up sharp objects instead. Or sharp words. Friends too. People that let you down. I've made peace with them and all of that "stuff" and honestly, I choose joy. Very few of us have a Hallmark family. But we have a choice and I choose not to own that stuff. Not my dog, don't have to walk it. It's part of life for many of us. But instead of dwelling on what a loss those things are to me, I choose to focus on the wonderful people that have become my family.  I think God did an amazing thing when he created us to have friends.  Friends are the family you choose.

A couple of weeks ago I got out my mother's recipe box and started pulling out the cookie recipes that have been made in my family for decades. I love baking and giving them as gifts just makes me happy so I wanted to be sure I had all the supplies I would need. I lost my mother when I was in a senior high school on the 12th of December.  She was sick and battled breast cancer from the time I was 9 years old. Pulling out those recipe cards well worn and stained, written in her hand was beyond bittersweet. As luck would have it, it was December 12th. I was alone as my ski racer was out of town on business, I had sappy Christmas music on the stereo, the tree was lit up and well it just sort of hit me...I was a hot sobbing mess and I couldn't stop. I'm pushing 60 so when this happens it's a shock after so many years.  I'm convinced when there is grief like that, there has been great love.

Some years are like that.  

After my meltdown I was so thankful that the person who shall not be named did not toss the box when she married my dad just a few short months after my mom died. I'm so thankful I have those cards - such a small thing but they are a reminder yet again how blessed I am. Even though I had her for such a short time she made her mark and so many of the things I do today are things she taught me or things I watched her do. She left a legacy that I'm grateful for. And recipe cards.

 

After my evening of quiet time I realized that the lights on our pre-lit tree had partially burned out. I was a bit shocked because it's only the 2nd Christmas. Since I'm hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas day dinners and a brunch on New Years I wanted to get the burnt string replaced. My Martha Stewart was showing. 

It's 6 days till Christmas. I hit the first store and didn't realize that there were both warm and white LED lights.  Yep you guessed it, I bought the wrong ones. So the next day I head over to our local grocery-everything store and figure they would have them. Nope, not an LED light to be had. Ditto with Lowes right next door, ditto with the local Ace Hardware so I figure I have no choice but to drive across town to the Menards where I bought the wrong ones and exchange them. 

I spent a whole afternoon in search of LED lights and I realized that this is what happens to many of us during the Christmas season.  We are searching for perfection. We have some idea about what needs to happen before we can celebrate.  Before we can enjoy the real meaning and hope of the season. Isn't that an ironic thing? We are all broken in some way, some more than others, just like the lights on my tree.  Perhaps it's between friends or family, or it's our health, our our finances or even a pre-lit Christmas tree. And yet we waste precious time chasing that perfection or trying to fix it when, in the big picture it never mattered to begin with. 

On my way back to Menards I was sitting at a light in a part of town I would not normally be in after dark and I looked over at a building I had been to a couple of times.  It's a shelter for women and children that have been through some tough stuff, whether it's drugs, abusive home situations, homelessness or any other thing you can think of. We've partnered with them many times.  I saw a vehicle pull up to the door that had some years on it, a slight woman jumped out and grabbed a couple of clear garbage bags full of wrapped gifts.  I could only assume they were donated for the residents of that shelter. A man with a "security" vest on came out to help her unload her vehicle. 

My first thought was how awesome there are still people in the world who choose to share the blessings in their life with those who have less or in some cases nothing and my second thought was to pray over those gifts that they would be a bright spot in the life of the recipient. My last thought was to look for more ways to share not only what's in my wallet but also my life. To listen for those little voices that prompt me to send a card or a small gift...or even my homemade sea salt caramels. To find more ways to give my time. My skills. And perhaps, even the reason I have hope. My faith.  And all of that came out of my search for light when in fact it's already the most important part of my life and all this other stuff is just details, even the broken bits.

May the light that shined over that manger a couple thousand years ago be visible in new ways to you this Christmas.  Even if you believe differently than me, may that belief bring you to a place of joy like you've never felt before. And lastly thank you for being part of my life.

God Bless and Merry Christmas.

Love Linda

P.S.  I may or may not get that string of lights replaced before our guests arrive. I've decided to spend the rest of the weekend baking gifts to take to some seniors who might enjoy a sweet surprise and just the thought of that makes my heart happy.

White Stuff On The Ground! ...and the floor!

Wait! It never snows before my birthday! 

By Linda Thielfoldt

It's December no wait scratch that! It's November 7th and it snowed in the Mitten today.  It never snows and sticks before my birthday so this is rather unexpected.  I have to admit it was pretty on the trees behind my house, you know the trees that still have their leaves.  Yeah read that one again! LOL

Anyway it's put me in the mood for Christmas! I K R!

So I thought since it was early enough to talk about working on Christmas projects I would share a really fun one I did a year ago at this time.

We were married in 1994 amidst all the gobs and gobs of lace, sequins and puffy sleeves that were so popular at that time and oh yes, yards of fabric for the train. Yep! I loved my wedding dress but I was so sad that it's sat in a box, sealed up for dear life for the past 25 years. 

We have moved three times and each time we move the giant hermetically sealed box. I don't have a daughter.  Even if I did I'm not sure she would want to wear a dress that weighed 35#. Seriously it did. And then there are those sleeves. 

I love this pic with my sweet sister Em. She was so happy and was so loved by both of us. You can see a bit more of the dress. (remember this was before digital pictures)




New house, new tree and theme. 

We have always had theme trees. Pigs (for my farm boy) angels and collected treasures. I used to put up three trees every year. But smaller house, simpler decor. I wanted something fancy, something decorating magazine worthy. So I started buying fancy ornaments, mercury glass, crystal, white, sparkly...you get the picture. I got most of them on sale after Christmas and finally had enough to do our 9' tree. 




Then came the reality that my quilted tree skirt would not go at all with the new tree. Pretty as it was, it just didn't go. So I knew I needed to make a new one.  We had moved a few months prior and I was once again faced with the huge hermetically sealed box containing my wedding dress.  

BINGO!  And idea is born.

My dress was a mermaid style with a really full skirt that extended into a rather long train. I thought the skirt would be perfect as my new tree skirt. So I dug out the huge box and was delighted upon opening that the dress was just as pure white as the day I wore it. Guess that preserving stuff really worked.  Anyway I laid it out and got the scissors. 

The dress had a lining, the skirt a stiff crinoline and another underskirt. TONS of fabric.  So I cut the skirt off and realized that it was rather plain. All the bling was on the dress part and the sleeves.  Ah yes, those sleeves.  

 












Here is the skirt pile.  And you can see how much fabric was in that mermaid skirt. The great thing about this was all along the bottom edge of the skirt was this beautiful lace. So I left that and cut the skirt the right height to allow that to be the hem.  Bonus - no hemming!

Next up to figure out how much of the yards and yards of fabric that made up the skirt would be needed to make my circle tree skirt.  You can see here how long the mermaid part was before it expanded into the train. So much fabric.  No wonder it weighed 35#!

Once I got that figured out and had a plan I kept the crinoline and the lining intact and basted along the top edge to hold the three layers together.

Next up was to deconstruct the bodice and remove the lace appliques I wanted to add to the skirt.  This was so tedious and time consuming but the results were worth it.

This was from the bust and the back of the dress. The back was mesh all the way to my waist and had so many lace applique pieces that there was a lot to choose from. It was just a matter of cutting away the mesh. So many beads and sequins!

This is one of the sleeves. The open work with the lace applique was so beautiful I knew I had to use it. Cutting it off that ruffled satin was tricky but the results were worth it.

This is what I ended up with after I destroyed the sleeves.  

RIP big puffy sleeves!

Next up I had to put the skirt together.  I went with the zig zag stitch over string method as there was so much to deal with that a big basting stitch was not going to cut it. 

Once I got it gathered I realized that there was a bigger hole in the center than I wanted so I cut off some more of the skirt edge and made a gathered insert to make the hole smaller. Bonus was a bit more bling with the hem lace in the center.  I was loving this. Next I started adding the lace applique pieces.  This photo shows what I took off the center front, this was the bust area. So beautiful.  I actually sewed the ruffled insert to the underside of the skirt and then flipped it to the front thereby finishing the inner circle edge at the same time.

I used my zipper foot and clear thread to zig zag stitch the appliques to the skirt only. I left the crinoline and lining free.  That was a fabric explosion under my needle for sure!

I added them evenly around the skirt but planned to have the bodice applique be to the front after it was installed under the tree.  


You can see in the pic below that I was able to use many of them.  I just love how blingy it is and so perfect for my "fancy" tree.

Photo bomber is Winnie 😸

And here is my fancy blingy silver and white theme tree!  I love that I can use my wedding dress tree skirt every year and reflect fondly on how amazing my life has been since I married this guy. I had no idea I would be this blessed. 

BTW I should tell you that my MIL was horrified that I cut up my wedding dress!  Better to enjoy every year than sit in a sealed box in the basement don't you think?  She has since changed her mind after seeing our tree.  

Even though it's only November my wish is that you have a blessed Christmas (or whatever you choose to celebrate at this time of year 💗)

Blessings, 

Linda

Successful Mitered Corners

Taking the tricky out of mitered corners on quilts.

 by Linda Thielfoldt
 
Many times either the quilt or the fabric determines when to use a mitered corner on a quilt border and today I want to share with you a sure fire trick for perfection when it comes getting the corner square and the pattern match as close to perfect as you can.

While working on this quilt I decided to use this border stripe fabric I found in my stash. I knew I didn't want to add any corner blocks, nor did I like the idea of having the stripe dead end into the side of the opposing border. Straight pieced border corners  just were not an option.

Where to begin

This border fabric is directional and I decided to make the border follow one direction around the quilt. Some fabrics don't require this planning ahead, but this particular one did.  After I decided on the direction and starting point I carefully pinned the border on the quilt, extending the ends well beyond the width of the border yet to be added.  In this case the stripe fabric border pieces were 6.5" wide so I knew I had to leave at least 8" or more on each end past the sides of the quilt. 

There are some key steps to follow:

 
1) The key to starting is to start the border seam 1/4" away from the edge of the quilt, if you know anything about the process, that is standard procedure. If you are not sure or cannot eyeball that then measure and mark the starting point.  This measurement is critical! Do not sew to the end as you see here in the photo.

2) Be sure to use a small stitch - for my machine that is a 2.0.

3) BACKSTITCH.  Do not skip this step.  

For this quilt I added the borders in a clockwise fashion, working my way around so as to keep the pattern going in the right direction. I mitered each corner as I went around. On normal fabric this may not be an issue, you could conceivably add two long sides and then two short sides and then do the miters all at once.

The process for each border is the same. Pin, sew, leave 1/4" unsewn at each end. Essentially what you end up with is something that looks like this photo. You can see that the border fabrics on both borders in this view extend beyond the width of the opposing border - make sure you don't cut them too short to begin with.

Carefully fold one of the border strips back and under as shown in the photo. To know you have the correct 45° the two border strips should lay nicely one on top of the other, right sides facing and have both edges aligned. Once you have the strip laid out and the match looks perfect press that fold.
Normally you would fold the border that is on the bottom of the quilt in this pic up and away from you and sew on the fold line you just pressed.  However, the tricky part is to keep that position exactly as you laid it out. Getting it pinned perfectly with all the flipping required can be really challenging, even with multiple pins. So what to do?  I needed the white stripe in the fabric to match up exactly as I knew that would be the most obvious point where a bad match would be highly visible.

Ta dah!  1/4" sticky iron-on tape to the rescue! 

 
There are several brands of this available but I bought this giant roll online.  It is peel and stick but also fusible. And as a bonus it washes out.

So essentially you cut a piece the size to fit that pressed mitered seam, stick it on the fabric, peel off the carrier, fold back over, check alignment and then press.  

 Here is a link to the one I bought but there are others:

1/4" iron on tape

I also use this tape when doing decorative pillows with piping, it helps keep the piping in place so you don't need pins which can be unwieldy.  Plus there are a ton of other uses as well.

 

Bingo - perfectly matched mitered corner.  For extra security and perfection, I always pin the border fabric that extends as well as the seam I pressed.  Drag the quilt to the machine and sew that seam. 

  

I prefer to start sewing at the outside of the border and sew toward the inside corner.  I find that an open toe foot is very helpful for this task as you can to be able to clearly see what you are doing when you get near the beginning of the border seam. Again I prefer to back stitch.  Keep in mind you need to fold the quilt border out of the way to get to that Y seam point. Do not sew past the intersection of the border seam you sewed previously.

Open up the seam and check your match, if good to go you can press and then trim to 1/4".

Pretty pleased with the match! Just need to trim the seam.  Once you do that you can opt to press to one side OR you can press that seam open, I usually do what gives me the best results. 

Hope this helps you the next time you need to put a strip or mitered corner on a quilt.

Blessings,

Linda

 

Getting Things Done

This is the year I clear out my UFO pile. For Good!

...said no quilter ever.

 

Seriously though after moving last year into my dream studio I was forced to look at (and pack and move) all my quilt and crafty stuff and ask myself what do I really want to create, spend time on and above all complete.

 

My husband and I are using this awesome book and the GTD program to help us in our time management of both work, home and volunteering and there are some awesome ideas and strategies to help us meet our goals. He went to an all day workshop his company put together and there were some really awesome tools that the book didn't have. I'm going to see if I can find one and attend at some point in the future. We have set aside time each week to "hold each other accountable" and it has been fun to have a productivity partner. 

 

My office is already seeing the benefit of this GTD mindset and now I'm incorporating it into my quilt life. After six months my studio is finally organized from our move to a point where I can really function and find things and I'm loving how clearing out the clutter has inspired me to be more creative and productive.

I recently came up with a couple of forms that will help me track progress of my quilting creations and project elements which will be a HUGE help when writing patterns.

The Log

This is the form I use for all projects that have been started. This is not a Want To Do list but rather for things that are already underway. I decided I needed to see where I was in the process for each project and I can put a date in the box under the steps as well as a deadline. This info can be helpful when scheduling my week and how I plan to get to my goal.  This is what I used when I wrote my book and my calendar had items blocked out by the headers.  Example on Tuesday morning I'm doing the binding on X quilt. I had to do that in order to meet my deadline. The form prints on 11 x 17 and I love having that option on my Brother printer/copier....best tech money I ever spent. (Model MFC J6920DW)

 

 

Quilt Project Worksheet

 

 I do mostly my own designs when making quilts. In the past I would just figure things out as I go and write down block or math details on whatever paper I had handy.  This is problematic if you ever want to go back and write a pattern after the fact.  This happened to me frequently. I would make a quilt, take it on the road and share in my lecture and I would get asked for the pattern.  So much so that I would go back and write the pattern from often sketchy notes. This is a tool that I can use to help keep track of the details and the math on every quilt and I'm very excited to incorporate it into my creative process. 

Both the log and the project sheets are kept in a binder and when I start a project I grab a worksheet and keep it with the project until completion. I printed them on heavier paper so they can hold up well to being handled a bunch as I work my way through the process.

 

I hope this gives you some inspiration as to how you can GTD in your creative life....I'll keep you posted.

 

Blessings,

Linda