My favorite season!

I finally got around to making another journal quilt! My life has been pretty much in constant upheaval since June. I probably could have finished this in September, but it seemed to fit October better anyway, so I took my time.

The title is "Delicious Autumn", which is the title of the poem by George Eliot that I printed on the back. I used a technique I found in a recent quilting magazine. I can't put my hands on the magazine at the moment, but the technique is cut-out applique. Then I saw an episode of Simply Quilts where they were doing free-motion zig-zag, so I used that to satin stitch around the leaves. I found that free-motion satin stitching takes a steady hand and a steady eye, but it does make it easier to go around curves. I free-motion quilted the background with metallic gold trhead, but it doesn't show up in the picture. The veins in the leaves are also metallic gold.

Here are the pictures!

Scissors and a washing machine

What can you do with a pair of scissors and a washing machine?

This month’s journal quilt is based on a project I found in a French patchwork magazine, “Ewa Patch”. We took a short trip to French Guiana (the country next door to us). The purpose of the trip was partly for a mini-vacation, and partly to buy some French DVDs and reading materials. Since we will be moving to Belgium next year, we are working on learning French, to add to our Dutch. (They speak both languages in Belgium.) Reading magazines about a subject that interests you is a good way to help you learn a language. So, of course, I bought all the quilting magazines I could find!

In this magazine, there was a chenille bathmat. They had cut the layers of fabric apart with a curvy line, then re-ordered them so that the different sections had different fabrics showing when they were cut. The top fabric remained the same throughout, so the color change between sections was subtle. Then they sewed the lines in different directions in the various sections. The effect was very pretty, and the changes in the color between the sections added a lot of interest. So, I was going to do something very similar, on a smaller scale, for my journal quilt. Then I thought, “I wonder if you could use this technique to make a picture?” I let that idea percolate for a few days. I wondered if you could have several different-colored layers of fabric, and just cut through to different levels to reveal the different colors. So, that is what I tried. My first attempt is here:

Although I think it looks nice, it's not exactly what I wanted. I found that cutting through to different levels was too subtle – the lowest levels of fabric didn’t show enough to give me different colors in the different sections. The sky came out exactly as I wanted, though. I decided I needed to cut the three hills out separately and put the main color I wanted for each one on top, and the tan “dirt” color underneath, so it would show as the dirt in between rows. I also decided the sun rays needed to be wider, so I sewed the lines farther apart, then cut out the rays. The sun was originally two pieces of yellow fabric placed on top of the sky. I decided the sky needed to be cut out from behind it, so that I wouldn’t end up with a blue strip around the edge of the sun.

So, here is the second version:

I like it much better, but I wish I had put a layer of green under the pink. I had a field of blooming tulips in mind. But, overall, I'm pleased. I have ideas rolling around in my head for more designs I could do with this technique.

And here is the back, with a poem by John Milton called "Song On May Morning."

My Trip Into the Jungle

Last week, our family joined 12 other people for a trip to an “eco-resort” in the rainforest of Suriname. I have lived in Suriname for six years, but have never been into the interior. Where we live is called the savannah, which is low-growing vegetation, and it stretches about 60 miles in from the coast. The place we went is called Raleigh Vallen (Raleigh Falls), and it is about 120 miles inland. It is definitely jungle – it looks just like what you’ve seen on National Geographic!

DAY 1 (Monday) We left our house in the capitol city of Paramaribo at 8:30 a.m. on a bus, which took us to Boskamp, a small settlement on the Coppename River. This took two hours. At Boskamp, there was a boat waiting to take us up the river. This boat was a dugout canoe. Remember, there were 18 of us, plus the driver and two other guys going along for the ride. These canoes are made from BIG trees. As I said, there was a boat waiting for us. Unfortunately, the boat did not have a motor. Another guy was supposed to bring the motor from the same city we came from. We couldn’t bring it with us because our bus was full. The guy with the motor left before us and had not arrived yet. We waited about two hours for our bus driver to track down the guy with the motor. He had gotten lost. How, I don’t know. There is basically one road running along the coast of Suriname from Paramaribo, the capitol city, to the river where we were. I remember seeing one “Y” in the road. We went right. He must have gone left. Anyway, waiting is a part of life in any developing country, so we took it in stride.

We finally got to leave. They piled all of our stuff in the front of the boat and covered it with a tarp. Clothes, food and etc. for 18 people for five days. Then we got in. I was amazed at how much they could fit in this boat. It was actually much nicer than we expected. My husband has gone upriver in a canoe that only had plank benches with no backs. This boat had backs on the benches, cushions on the seats, and a tarp roof over us. There wasn’t much leg room, and three adults across was a bit tight, but it seemed okay, at least when we first got in.



We then proceeded up the river for five hours without stopping. We stopped at a village where the two extra passengers got off, and the guys could pee in the bushes. No toilets. I wasn’t that desperate. We still had two hours to go.

About an hour later, it started raining. Hard. The tarp roof leaked. Water was sloshing around our feet. The guy in the back of the boat was bailing water out. We had a very long hour to go.

I taught my kids a new word on this trip up the river. “Interminable.” According to Webster, it means “endless” or “wearisomely protracted.” Webster had no idea.

At about 7:00 p.m., the sun went down. A few minutes later, we pulled into our destination. It was really dark. We were led up the hill to our “lodge”, and the guys carried all the stuff up.

The lodge was a long building with open sides and a thatched roof. At one end was a kitchen with a gas range, but no refrigerator. At the other end was a common area with two long picnic tables. In the middle was a dormitory-style room with rows of bunk beds. Off to the side was a separate building with toilets and showers. There is electricity at night, powered by solar panels. Unfortunately, there was a problem with one of the circuits, and the only light we had was in the kitchen. There were a couple of oil lanterns set out for us in the common room and one in between the shower stalls and the toilet stalls.


By this time, I really needed to use the bathroom. I headed for the toilets, and went into the first stall, which was closest to the lantern, although the light didn’t do much good. Before I sat down, I noticed a dark spot on the seat. I assumed it was a cockroach, which are so very common here, they don’t phase me much anymore. I grabbed some toilet paper to wipe it off the seat. In the darkness, I accidentally touched it, and it was furry! Then, instead of falling to the floor, it jumped and stuck to the wooden wall. I ran out of the stall and grabbed the lantern to get a good look. It was a TARANTULA! Now, that was an exciting way to cap off the day!



DAY 2 (Tuesday)

Woke up with sore hips from sleeping on a bunk bed with a 4” foam mattress sitting on a piece of plywood. It must just be that I am heavy enough to flatten the foam rubber, because I always have trouble sleeping on this type of bed. I also have joint problems in my hips, so I’m sure that doesn’t help. But, overall, I felt pretty rested. Later, I put a mattress from an empty bed on top of my mattress. It was much more comfortable. We all had mosquito nets on our beds, even though I hardly saw any mosquitoes, which was a nice break from the city. I found out later that there are other bugs that fly around at night, and there is always the possibility of vampire bats. Lovely.

We were all so exhausted from the trip, we didn’t do much of anything today except hang around the lodge, go down to the river to play in the water, and watch for birds. A toucan landed on the grass about 10 feet from where I was sitting and stayed there for about a minute. I didn’t have the camera with me, so I didn’t get a picture, but it was pretty cool.

Of course, I brought some quilting with me. I am quite a bit behind on my Women of the Bible blocks, so I brought templates and fabric for six blocks. I started on a very complicated one today, the Star of Persia. I was more than happy to just sit in the common room and sew.



In the afternoon, there was a troop of capuchin monkeys that came to visit, looking for a handout from the new group of people. They weren’t afraid of us at all, so it was very easy to get some good pictures of them.



DAY 3 (Wednesday)

Everyone else in the group went on a hike today, except me. There is a huge mound of granite sticking out of the rainforest nearby. It is called “Voltzberg”. “Voltz” was the name of the man who discovered it, and “berg” means mountain in Dutch. It is a short boat ride and then a 4-hour hike to get to Voltzberg, then you can climb the rock. No thanks. I planned to sit on my backside and sew all day. The picture is my husband and four boys in front of the mountain.



After everyone left at 7:00 a.m., I decided I wanted to go fishing. I like fishing, and haven’t done it in a long time. Some of the guys brought all the gear with them, so I grabbed a pole and took off. The only bait I had was cheese, which wouldn’t stay on the hook. The locals usually catch a small fish, and cut it up for bait. So, I used the cheese to catch a small fish, and, yes, I really did, I chopped it up for bait.

The next thing I caught was a 9-inch piranha. It really is a pretty fish, except for its teeth. I was very lucky that the hook only went through its lip. It would have been interesting to try and get the hook out if it was inside its mouth. I threw it back, because, although I have heard they taste good, they are very bony. I kept fishing, and only got one more bite. It was something much bigger than the piranha I caught. Unfortunately, it was the one that got away.

It turns out that I should have brought the piranha back with me. The guys were all impressed, because I was the only one who caught anything all week.

I went back to the lodge, cleaned up, washed the dishes from breakfast, had some lunch, read a book and took a nap in the hammock. I did finally finish the Star of Persia block. You can see it here.

Everyone else got back around 4:00 p.m. They were dragging. I had the best day of our trip. I have four kids. When we go on vacation, I still have to figure out meals, find everyone’s stuff, make sure kids brush their teeth, put them to bed, etc. It’s usually not much of a break. For this one day, though, I had absolutely no responsibilities. I could have stayed at the river fishing all day long if I had wanted to. I didn’t have to be anywhere or be responsible for anyone else all day. I think I could have been happy with several days in a row like that!

DAY 4 (Thursday)

Everyone was pretty tired after yesterday's hike, so they mostly hung around the lodge. There was one family in our group who is very outdoorsy, and they were out paddling canoes up and down the river, looking for more animals, etc. I went on a short (1-hour) walk on a trail through the jungle. Saw some birds, and lots of butterflies. Came back soaked with sweat. I’m so glad I didn’t do that for eight hours yesterday. I also spent some time playing in the river with my kids. Tried some more fishing. No luck.



At 5:30, we held a baptism service in the river, with the monkeys watching. Our two younger sons, who are 11 and 9, have been Christians for several years, but had not been baptized yet. My husband is an ordained minister, and baptized the older two boys in a river in North Carolina some years ago. We thought it would be good to continue the tradition of baptizing our kids in a river. This was a very special service, since both of their school teachers from the last two years were on the trip with us, as well as some other very dear friends. We sang some songs, dunked some boys, and had a great time praising the Lord in the sanctuary that He created!

About 9:00 at night, a bunch of us went up to the dirt airstrip at the top of the hill and looked at the stars. Very cool.



DAY 5 (Friday)

We left Raleigh Vallen today. We had arranged to take a small airplane home, to avoid the 7-hour boat ride. It only takes 45 minutes to travel the same distance by air. It also costs about 5 times more. We were lucky that a group of Dutch tourists were coming in that day, because we only had to pay a fraction of the normal cost for the airplane, since the pilot would have to fly it back anyway.

After packing up, we still had several hours to wait. I finished a second block, called “Scroll Work.” You can see it here. I didn’t get the six blocks done that I had planned, but I am happy that I got two done.

There were two planes coming, one at 1:30 and the other at 3:30. The 1:30 flight was a 6-seater Cessna. We asked to be on the earlier flight, because my husband was allergic to something in the area and had been itching all week. He couldn’t wait to get away from there. We had to leave one of our teenage boys behind to come with the second group, but he didn’t mind. His girlfriend and her family were on the trip with us, and they were in the second group.

So, we piled into the little tin can with wings, and took off for our 45-minute ride home. Little planes don’t fly as smoothly as big planes, and my 11-year-old is prone to motion sickness. You guessed it. Ten minutes before we landed, he threw up all over himself and the floor of the plane. That was fun. We had some pillows handy that we had brought with us, so I used a pillowcase to clean up as much of the mess as I could. I put it in the plastic barf bag that my son didn’t have time to use, and later just threw it away. That pillowcase was not worth re-opening that bag!



It was so nice to get home. I did find myself getting annoyed with the cars, traffic and noise of the city. Raleigh Vallen was so peaceful, and I really did have a great time, especially because we were with friends. But, I am very happy to be sitting in my air-conditioned, well-lit bedroom at my computer, drinking an ice-cold Diet Coke.

Who Am I?

Who am I? This month’s journal quilt is a self-portrait. I started by combing through my fabric stash and scraps to find fabrics that expressed something about me. Then I took a photo of my face into Photoshop and played with effects until I found something I thought I could reproduce in fabric. I crazy-quilted the different fabrics onto a piece of muslin. Then I added the face and few other appliqués. Each of the appliqués is machine outlined with a different stitch, but you can’t see them all in the picture. My machine doesn’t have any decorative stitches, or I would have gone crazy on this one. I may still do some hand embroidery on it to dress it up a bit.

There is one thing about me represented in this piece that I forgot to include in the description on the back. I have one piece of dark brown fabric (behind the cross) that represents chocolate. I didn’t have any fabric with chocolate on it, so I just had to go with the color!

I feel like a butterfly!

I almost didn't get anything made for February. Back in January I did tie-dying with my Home Ec class. While they were doing bandanas, I was doing pieces of fabric, thinking I would use them in my February journal quilt, since I had never done tie-dying before, so it would qualify as my "new technique of the month. Well, those pieces of fabric sat around, not inspiring me at all. I just didn't have any ideas. Then I cut up some old jeans to use in a someday jeans quilt for my son, and thought I might try one of the ideas I had seen on the About.com forum for using blue jeans. Maybe I could even combine the blue jeans and tie-dye. Seemed appropriate. Never got off the ground. Then I thought about making a miniature Cathedral Windows quilt, which is something else I've always wanted to try. That didn't inspire me either. There were several other uninspiring thoughts along the way, then I thought I could do a small landscape, which is something else I've always wanted to try. I couldn't come up with any appropriate fabrics for the scene I had in mind. That was two days ago. I finally went back to the tie-dye fabric, and decided it would make nice butterflies. That seemed entirely appropriate for my state of mind over the past month. Not the freedom of being a butterfly, but the inability to stay focused or "land" on something for any length of time. I wanted to get this done quickly, before my attention flitted away, so I didn't even finish the edges of the fabric squares. I gathered the middle, starched the heck out of them, and only sewed the middle to the background. (By the way, I went through several different backgrounds before deciding to go all the way with tie-dyed fabric.) I put fray-check around the edges of the butterflies so they wouldn't ravel. I didn't think quilting it would add anything, so I just made the back, layered it and bound it. That was day 1. The next day I found some things to embellish it: silver Christmas stars on wire, rhinestones and tiny pearls on a string. Fabric glue, and voila! a journal page.

I found a nice quote by Robert Louis Stevenson for the back: "To be what we are and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end in life." A butterfly symbolizes becoming something new, so I liked the thought.

I have to say I am not as happy with this one as I was with January. It seems so crafty, if you know what I mean. It is not sophisticated or very artistic. But it does reflect my state of mind right now. On June 15th we will be leaving Suriname and going back to the U.S. After a year there, we will be moving to Belgium.

My thoughts are bouncing between multiple categories right now.

1) Teaching music, home economics and yearbook until the end of the school year. It is really difficult to continue the daily stuff when you know a big change is coming. I also have to think about the end-of-year program and the mad dash to finish the yearbook by our deadline.

2) Finding buyers for most of our furniture and lots of other stuff. Most of what we own is not worth the cost of shipping it home, and we won't need it in the house we have in the U.S.

3) Finding homes for our pets - 2 dogs, 2 cats (who don't get along together) and 4 hamsters. This worries me a lot more than getting rid of the "stuff."

4) Packing things to be shipped. Most of this can't happen yet, because we still need our stuff! But I'm still thinking about it. We also have to arrange for shipping.

5) Arranging for our transportation and our travel schedule this summer. Our "job" for the year is to visit all the churches who support us, so they will continue to support us in the future. Although we will be living in NC, we will be traveling to CA for the summer, and we have to be in IN by July 21 for meetings at our mission headquarters. Then back to NC in time for school to start in early August. Oh, yeah, and we have to buy a van for all of this driving.

6) Thinking about future plans for moving to Europe. This isn't so pressing, but some things have to be done now.

7) Quilting projects and commitments. I still want to keep up with my Women of the Bible quilt, and the Journal quilts, besides other projects that I just want to do. I haven't actually finished anything in a while, other than a couple of baby quilts and these journal quilts.

8) Finally, regular wife and mother stuff - cooking, laundry, cleaning, taking kids everywhere, etc., etc., etc. I put this last on purpose. It has to be done, but generally gets put way down on the list. I realized this morning that my kids have been out of shampoo in their bathroom for a week. They did tell me about it; I just haven't done anything about it.

Whew! If I look at the whole list, it's easy to get overwhelmed. But usually I am able to just do the thing that is in front of me now, and not stress over everything else. However, I think this journal quilt experience is an indication to me of how far I am being stretched at the moment. I am normally not a "short attention span" type of person. I find I am also forgetting lots of things (like the shampoo).

Sorry this was so long. That was a lot of reading for a simple little journal quilt! Time to flit off to something else...

Here it is - January!

Here is my January journal quilt. I finished it, and I just couldn't wait until the 20th to post it. You've seen the background I started with. I decided I wanted a seagull, so I went looking for pictures. These are the two I worked from:

Next, I sketched a picture. Fancy paper, huh? I realized the legs were too short, but I wasn’t about to draw the whole thing again!

I traced the sketch onto a fusible product, and ironed it to my fabric for the seagull and the piling he's sitting on. Then I cut them out and fused them to the background. I ended up doing this twice for the seagull, because you could see the sky through the white fabric. If I were to do it again, I wouldn’t have worried about adding a second layer, because I could have covered it with thread. Either way, it worked, but it ended up really stiff. Then I just used my handy-dandy "Big Foot" and free-motioned all the details with thread. I had some problems with the needle getting sticky from the fusible stuff, but managed to finish with lots of "Need-L-Lub." By the way, I did find teflon-coated needles on the internet - they are designed for industrial sewing where the needle goes so fast that it generates a lot of heat. They are sold in boxes of 100. I didn't bother ordering any, but if I decide to do a large project with lots of sewing through fusible stuff, I may get some.

When I had the picture done, I layered it with a lightweight cotton batting and muslin on the back. I free-motion quilted the waves and clouds.

Drum roll, please . . . .




My favorite part is the bird’s wing. There are lots of details that I am less than 100% satisfied with, but overall I like how it turned out.

I have named the piece “Day Dream,” after a poem by A.S.J. Tessimond. The poem is on the back, along with the info about the quilt. I used June Taylor computer printer fabric for the back.



In case you can’t read it, here is the poem:

Day Dream
A.S.J. Tessimond

One day people will touch and talk perhaps easily,
And loving be natural as breathing and warm as sunlight,
And people will untie themselves, as string is unknotted,
Unfold and yawn and stretch and spread their fingers,
Unfurl, uncurl like seaweed returned to the sea,
And work will be simple and swift as a seagull flying,
And play will be casual and quiet as a seagull settling,
And the clocks will stop, and no one will wonder or care or notice,
And people will smile without reason,
Even in winter, even in the rain.

Meme

This was sent to the journal quilters by Sophie, so here goes:

Four jobs you've had: Procedure Writer; Church Secretary; Magazine Publisher; Music Teacher

Four movies you could watch over and over: Galaxy Quest; Chicken Run; Monsters Inc.; O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Four places you've lived: California, Colorado, North Carolina, Suriname (South America)

Four TV shows you love to watch: Desperate Housewives; American Idol; Fear Factor; Trading Spaces

Four Places You've Been on Vacation: Grand Canyon; Aruba; Barbados; Paris

Four Websites You Visit Every Day: About.com quilting forum; My Yahoo (only two every day)

Four Of Your Favorite Foods: Avocados; M&Ms; Fresh strawberries; Grilled salmon

Four Places You'd Rather Be: Somewhere without mosquitoes; In a really nice fabric store; In the Rocky Mountains; On a cruise

Four Albums you can't live without: There aren't any I couldn't live without, but some of my favorites are: Josh Groban (any of them); Rich Mullins Songs; 4Him Chapter One; Chris Rice Deep Enough to Dream

Four People you'll pass this on to: I don't know - Sophie took everyone I'm connected with online!

Thread Painting

My January journal quilt is coming along. I have machine appliqued a seagull sitting on a piling. I am working on thread painting it. It's coming along pretty well. I need to buy some more thread (I don't have any brown!) before I can finish.

For those of you who do this type of thing a lot, do you know if there are teflon-coated sewing machine needles available? I'm sewing through pretty heavy iron-on stuff, and it keeps gumming up my needle, causing skipped stitches. I have to keep putting Need-L-Lub on the needle and scraping the gunk off. I was just wondering if there are needles made so stuff doesn't stick to them.

I'm trying to do shading so it looks more realistic. I am not very good at shading when I draw, and doing it with a sewing machine is even harder! I am enough of a perfectionist to not be 100% satisfied, but enough of a realist to understand that it's pretty darn good for a first attempt. No pictures yet, though. I'll wait until it's time to reveal it on the 20th!

Name Change

I decided to change the name of my blog from Becky's Journal Quilts to Becky's QuiltBlog. I wanted to be able to include other ongoing quilt projects as well, and didn't want to limit myself to just the journal quilts.

I'm still thinking about the January journal quilt. I have some good ideas, but haven't tried anything out yet. I've been busy hand quilting my second Giant Dahlia wallhanging. That's what I "feel" like doing right now, so I haven't done a lot of anything else. I have a baby quilt almost finished, but don't feel like sitting at the machine to finish quilting it. The baby isn't born yet, but will be any day, so I need to get it finished. I am also trying to catch up on my Women of the Bible blocks. I'm about three weeks behind. I almost finished one block today. It is all applique, all curved. I thought I was pretty good at applique, but these curves are tricky! Anyway, I'll feel good if I get that block finished today. Then maybe I'll tackle the journal quilt.

I have been posting my Women of the Bible blocks on my website as I have finished them. I wish I had been blogging when I started them. I think this format would have been better than the website. But, I am putting a link to the page here on the blog so that you can see the blocks if you are interested.