Quilting is a Dangerous Hobby

About three degrees of separation, but I blame quilting for my car now being without a headlight and that there’s an injured deer out there somewhere.

Today was a “mini-retreat” for my quilting group.  A few of us spent the day in a church basement working away on our favorite hobby and generally solving the world’s problems by chit chatting about everything under the sun.  My joy of life daughter Ana came with me and we had a wonderful 2 days together.

I do not have a lot of space at home to lay out quilts.  I may have nearly 3000 square feet, but the house is 100 years old and full of small rooms.  I save up finished quilt tops and lay the out at these mini retreats.  This one was no exception.  At about 6:45 tonight I finished piecing a large quilt that I’ve had the blocks finished for a long time.  I had the backing for this quilt, and the blocks, in my “immediate” project box and they took up a lot of room.  I was very motivated to get the quilt all pinned out and ready to quilt at home.   The quilt is all blocks, no border.  It’s pretty simple – a using up of 6 inch squares and 2 ½ strips from the scrap pile.  There is no border.  That’s important….

I had my roll of “Warm and Natural” batting with me, so I was prepared.  I laid the quilt out on the floor and took out the tape measure…..

UGGGGGHHHH…..

92 inches by 101….

Ugggg

Have you done the math yet….?  Warm and Natural is 90 inches wide….. The quilt has no border, so I cannot get 2 inches back…

There’s a Jo-Ann’s about 10 minutes away.  I have my coupons in my purse (Always!!!).  Ana and I hopped in the trusty minivan and raced up there to get a batt.  I could have pieced a strip onto the rolled batting, but at King sized, I really didn’t want to.  There’s a little thing to note here too, we were on a huge time crunch.  We had 10 PM tickets to a special screening of a movie at Orchestral Hall.  We HAD to leave our house by 9:15 to make it, which meant leaving the church at 9, and we still had cleanup and other things.

We got the batt, and went back.  It’s now 7:15.  I iron my backing (108 wide fabric, no piecing).  That took time, it must have been near end of bolt –it was quite wrinkled.  I laid it on the ground – I love using commercial carpeted floors for layouts – then finished the sandwich and pinned it all out.  There were 132 blocks, and I pinned each in the center.  I actually counted down the pins as I went… 129…128… 34…33… etc.

At 8:45 I was done and ready to pack, vacuum (it’s a church basement and used on Sunday mornings – we clean up well).  By shortly after 9, everything was in the back of the van and we headed out.  About 2 miles down the road, I decided to stop for some candy for the movie.  As I was getting out of the car, two things happened simultaneously… Hubby called and I realized I didn’t have my purse.

I panic… that’s me…. I pull together quickly… but I need that rude to everyone, shut up, let me think moment.

My husband is a saint….

As I was blustering to him, and getting worried, Ana kept a level head, called the church, got a hold of someone else who was just leaving and sure enough, they had my purse.

We turned around and headed back.  We now have assured ourselves that we will be running late to the movie….

I picked up the phone and call hubby as I’m driving.  Don’t rail on me, it’s allowed in this state, and I’m pretty good at watching while driving.  I have speed dial, voice dial and am not looking down as I dial. 

I talked for about 45 seconds, and I’m doing the scanning the road thing.  I’m approaching a light, so I’m looking more ahead than directly in front of me.  It’s a major city street, but pretty empty.  We are driving through a block that has cemetery on both sides. 

All of a sudden….

Ana lets out a shout….

I see a flash of beige that’s obviously an animal…..

Crunch….

Not a big thump, or a lot of force, but a definite sound of breakage.

I say into the phone “I just hit a deer”….

Poor hubby, I think he’s going to stop calling me; I think he’s starting to feel pretty helpless.

We stop, Ana puts on the hazards as I walk down the street and sidewalk looking for the deer.  There was a guy on a bicycle as this happened.  He saw it and told me it was a doe and that it was by the fence.  We looked as I called 911 but never saw the deer.  The emergency operator assured me that I could leave as long as the road was clear (it was); no injuries (no) and that I didn’t need a damage report.

The minivan is 13 years old, has 231K miles and numerous rust patches.  All that was damaged was the lens and bulb for the headlight.  Also, I think the fact that I was on the phone and not tensed really helped with there being no whiplash or that type of injury.  The blow was so light, that it didn’t stop the car immediately – and that by the time I realized what was happening, the deer was gone so I didn’t slam on the breaks, but came to a gentle stop.

Chapter 2

We were late to the movie, but had a good time.  Ana left our house about 1 am (we got out of the movie at midnight, home at 12:30, but then had to do the Minnesota goodbyes for 30 more mins… J ). 

She headed home to Wisconsin….

On a major highway leading out of Minnesota….

On the Saturday of Halloween weekend…..

At bar time….

In a car with outstate license plates…..

Doing a few miles over the speed limit….

Yes, she got pulled over.  The officer asked her if she had been drinking.  She said she hadn’t (true) and that she’d come from a Quilting retreat.  I think the obvious sobriety and the quilting supplies packed obviously in her front and back seats was a good confirmation.  She was let off with a warning.

Conclusion

Two days of sewing in a church basement equated to: 

·         3 broken fingernails (me)

·         1 pretty nasty cut from pin (Ana)

·         1 smashed up headlight

·         1 speeding warning

·         1 husband who is probably afraid to answer calls from me least another issue occurs.

I did lay out and sandwiched seven quilts.  Most were already done; I had to border one, assemble one, fix a wrong block on another and piece a couple backings.  I really did very little actual sewing, but I feel like I accomplished so much because I lowered the level of my to do bin and have a pile to quilt on the Juki now. 

I also made a run to Twin Cities Quilting and got a border for my Irish Mist quilt.  I’ll have picture of that later – after I get the border on.  It’s a cool pattern.  I don’t often make quilts fully from a pattern, and I did with this one. 

I go to a lot of quilt shops and find that the service and expertise varies greatly.  I do both very traditional patterns/blocks and also very artsy things.  I make up a lot of my own patterns as well as putting some interesting twists on existing ones.  I like to think that I’m an artist.  I have a real knack for color.  My “adopted” daughter-in-law, Brandie, who is a true artist, as well as many others, have confirmed to me that I have a way with color schemes.

That said, I have found that the owner and staff at TCQ are both helpful and on the same level with me on the color thing.  However – and this is very important – they are also very helpful and patient with the more basic, traditional customers.   I don’t often ask for help with picking out fabric, but I’ve decided that TCQ is my place to go when I need help finding the perfect fabric for a special piece.  I could probably find the right fabric somewhere else – even Jo-Ann’s – but the opinions and eye to eye camaraderie means so much more.

95% of my quilts are me playing around with color, scraps, pattern, etc., and wind up being donated, gifted or traded.  It’s that 5% that I collect fabric for, have a special pattern, etc., that I want to make just prefect that bring me into TCQ.  I’ve been there twice in the last two months for the perfect border for a special piece and both times walked away with the perfect piece. 

Last and NOT least

I have to call out my wonderful daughter now.  She’s 24 now, and been quilting since high school.  Although she’s quite skilled, between school, work, boyfriend, and being a young adult, she has not produced very much.  A few years back, I bought her a pattern “Chocolate Covered Cherries” at a quilt expo.  She raided my stash for small pieces (the pattern is fairly scrappy) and has been working on it in spurts since then.

At our quilting retreat a few weeks ago, she finished the blocks (30) and today, she finished assembling the top.  We’ve picked out borders, but she hasn’t completed them yet.  Here’s a picture of where she’s at right now.

And yes, the border fabrics also came out of my stash…. I’m just so happy to have a daughter sharing my interests that I don’t minds the stash swiping… (Hands off the 108 wide batik, the 1 yard cuts from the Nancy’s notions show and the Cherry wood bundles though!)

I’m going to quilt it for her – a simple meandering stipple – but she’ll have to hand stitch the binding herself…. She HATES hand stitching…. I’m going to have fun watching her.

Another last… but more least than the last last….

I didn’t take a picture, but I have to call out my birthday present to my daughter.  Her REAL birthday present was given to her a couple weeks ago at retreat – a Viking mechanical sewing machine, but I had to make her something small to celebrate the actual day. 

I found some fabric at Mill End.  It’s pretty crappy fabric as a whole (loose weave, lots of sizing, rough texture), but it’s an old fashioned McDonald’s print – Hamburgler, the purple guy, Ronald, etc.  Ana works as a Crew Trainer at a McDonald’s.  I figured a good – but useable – joke gift out of the fabric would be perfect.  I bought a yard.

I made her a large tote bag.  It has a suede and Timtex box bottom and is lined with warm and natural.  I found some polyester (ugg) webbing in my stash that matched for handles.  I take a lot of pride in my workmanship, but I wasn’t going to spend an hour making handles for a joke bag.  I know it will get used, but I’ve made her several other bags, and this one isn’t the most fashionable.

I thought it especially funny that the guest she brought to lunch on Friday was her manager from McDonalds.  He liked the bag too.