A Real Man...

When I first started sewing, I posted a video on YouTube.  It was just a way to show my Aunt Vivien Leigh something that I was unable to describe to her in words. 

As she lives way across the country from me, I thought that posting that video was the easiest way.

Since that time, I've had a few comments on the video.  Some very kind and positive, some complaining about the quality of the video.

It surprises me that there are people who have so little to do that they complain about video quality, especially since I explained that it was just for my aunt.

On the positive side, however, "Dianne57" posted this:

"so nice to see a guy quilting , my grandson wants to learn but was told by his peers that only sissy sew. now I can show him this. thanks"

I thought that was very nice.  I don't know who Dianne57 is, but I hope that she makes it to this page somehow.  I've been thinking about this a bit since she posted the reply and I want to list some things that I think make a real man.

Hard Times

As I said previously, I abhor the rabid and random of detailed postings of daily drama.  As such, I will not post any such thing.  I will just say that hard times are upon my family right now and muse about the proper response to hard times.

Over the course of my life, I have faced some very big challenges.  That goes for most of us.  While we expect good things to happen, and good things do happen, it is also true that bad things happen.  For some reason, we just don't expect bad things to happen to us.  Curious, isn't it?

If you've not experienced the death of a loved one, you will.  If you have not faced financial or vocational hardship, you will.  It is the nature of life.

When these times come, how should we respond?

An American Dream

Waylon Jennings

In 1979 Waylon Jennings released a song entitled "It's the World's Gone Crazy (Cotillion)."  I doubt that even he would have believed how prophetic he actually was.

On August 8, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial entitled "I Have a Dream."  If you have never read it, I encourage you to do so.  It is one of the best speeches in American history.

There are many memorable lines which are now iconic in American culture.  My personal favorite is this:

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Where is the dream today?

Pokemon Go (Away)

Once, long ago, I was the father of a ten year-old boy who was infatuated with Pokémon cards.  I didn't understand it then.  Now that I look back at it, I still don't understand it.  It was stupid.

Trying desperately to be a good father, I even went to the Pokémon movie.  It was the worse use of celluloid in the history of humankind.  But that might be giving it too much credit.

But, today's a new day.  I'm an enlightened man of the future, right?  Think again. 

Venti?

I know that you have come to think of me as a sophisticated man-about-town.  In fact, you'd be right. I'm totally hip and groovy.  No one is more with it than I.

What can I say, chicks dig me.  Why wouldn't they?

Remembering Les

I know that I've come back to college football time and time again on this blog.  There's a part of me that wants to apologize for that because a quilting blog wouldn't seem a very natural fit for college football.  On the other hand, this is a blog about me as well as my quilts, so, in that sense, it seems fitting.

This past Sunday, following a heartbreaking loss to Auburn, LSU decided to fire Head Coach Les Miles.

Honey's Maze: Part I

The Maze

Top Half of "Honey's Maze" Pattern

For the past month or so, I've been working on a quilt that I dreamt up about a year ago when I was doodling on some isometric paper.  (Look here for printable isometric paper: Printable Paper or CustomGraph.)

As I mentioned in The Dream, I like to doodle to come up with designs.  I have a lot of drawings that aren't very good, but that's ok because, every once in a while, something just comes to life on the paper.  I never start a doodle thinking that I have to produce a home run.  Rather, I start a doodle thinking, "I wonder what it would look like if I did this."

Hanging Columns

Sometimes it looks awful.  Sometimes not.  For me, it's all part of the process.

So, last year, I chanced upon a design that looked fun to me.  I'm really not sure what to call it, but I've chosen to call it a maze.  It's not really a maze, but it does kind of look like one, so there ya go.

The Wedding Planner

Engagement Ring

As I mentioned somewhere on this blog, I became engaged this past May.  We didn't really have a date in mind, but we knew that the Spring or Fall of 2017 was what we were shooting for.  Now, it looks like April, 2017 is the time.

It's nice to have it narrowed down to a month.  There is a specific date in April; I just can't remember it.  I'm a guy; details aren't my forte.  What can I say?

Bet I'll be there, though.

The Dream

I want to share the delights and the process of designing a quilt.

I don't want to talk about the technical ways to design because there are many different technical ways to design a quilt.

Rather, I want to talk about the spiritual and philosophical aspects of design.

It's a funny thing to write about something that seems so organic to me.  It's sort of like explaining how I breath or eat.

The Week in Review

There's no one thing that has struck my fancy to write about this week, but there's lots of things happening, so I thought I'd just recap the week.

Speaking Our Minds

For decades I have heard parents of college age children complain about the dangers of the university environment.  Largely, they are right about the ideological leaning of campuses around the country and the danger that the campus culture poses to unprepared students.

Just when I thought that the craziness could not become crazier, the idea of "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" burst onto the scene.  A safe space?  When I was growing up, a safe space theoretically protected one from nuclear holocaust, but, to these weak-minded wimps, it protects them from getting their feelings hurt.  Good Lord in heaven above, we have raised a country full of spoiled-brat whiners.

Heaven help us.

But, into the darkness comes John (Jay) Ellison, Ph.D., Dean of Students at the University of Chicago.

The Land of the Free

An interesting story is in the press this weekend.  Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, has hit the headlines by refusing to stand up for the national anthem before games.

I have no beef with Kaepernick.  He's heavily involved in charity work and he's always been a model citizen.

This move on his part is a bit puzzling to me, however.

Licensed to Carry (Your Junk)

Here we are after the Mother's Heart quilt and Regarding Dutch.  It's a hard reality of life that a well thought-out and technically precise quilt posted along with a warm introduction to a wonderful mother gets less than half the views of a few cute puppy photos.  I reckon that's why people post so many YouTube videos of kittens and puppies.  That's where the money is.

For the more hardy amongst you, I hope you enjoyed meeting my mom.  She's worth the effort.

Guys and Dolls

I'm not politically correct.  Partly because I'm a grouch and I hate such nonsense, and, partly, because PC is anathema to thoughtful public discourse.

For those from Arkansas, that means that you can't talk right about things when the man tells you what you're supposed to think.



Dutch 11 weeks

Hell, what am I thinking... if you're from Arkansas, you probably can't read anyway.  Seriously, they chose a pig for their university mascot.  Get real.

I was thinking a few politically incorrect thoughts this weekend.  Shouldn't come as a surprise because ALL my thoughts are politically incorrect because I am politically incorrect.  If you're not from Arkansas, I'm sure you see the connection.

Here are all three of my big thoughts:

1. Dogs are not Humans.
2. Women are not Men.
3. Men are not Women.

Lemonade or Mountains?

When life gives lemons, make lemonade.  So says the collective wisdom of the grey-hairs who have gone before.

Is it so?

While I tire of endless Facebook posts about what kind of muffin you chose for breakfast today or your latest drama, I feel compelled to write about the setbacks that we face in the course of our normal lives.

Regarding Dutch

A girl's dreams are powerful things.  They can be overwhelming. 

Some dreams are small, some large.  Really large.

Meet Dutch:

Dutch
10 weeks, 30 pounds

He's one of the large dreams.

Confessions of a Pig

The Original Truck Bib

Last year, my fiancé finally got around to telling me that I'm a pig.  Duh.  I wonder what took her so long.

Specifically, she was talking about how I eat in a recliner.  I drop lots of ick on my shirt when I do.  I like to eat in a recliner in front of the TV more often than I probably should.

Being a woman of action, she got busy online and found a pattern for a bib.  Then she told me to make some so that I wouldn't make such a mess.

Being a man of good sense and uncommon discretion, I said, "Yes, dear," and got to work.

No dummy, me.

A Mother's Heart

It's August in the deep southern United States.  That means we're nearing the end of one season and we are looking forward to the beginning of a much more pleasant one.

Here in the deep south, summer means lots of things, some enjoyable, others not so much.  For example, I've lived in the deep south for the vast majority of my life, but I've never gotten used to the heat.  You'd think that I would at least be used to it a little bit, but, no, I'm not.

I'm a sweathog.

Tolerating Picasso

Guernica-1937
Picasso

I was watching TV the other day.  Sometimes I do that.  It was a show about the histories of famous paintings and artists.  I don't know why I was watching it.  I don't know much about art.  Maybe I was watching so I could learn something.  More likely, I was just bored.



Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973)

One of the shows was about Pablo Picasso.

Did you know his real name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso?  

Seriously.  I'm not kidding.  Google it if you don't believe me.

Libby's Leaves

My Aunt Libby is a pretty wonderful gal.  Everyone needs someone who believes in family.  Aunt Libby is such a person.

For reasons unclear to me, she also believes in me.

So, one day I dreamed her up a quilt.

The rest of the story is this...

The Khaki Quilt

Whew... What a ride so far!

I do love that Falling Mountain quilt, if I do say so myself.  Hope you do too.  Now, I have to do a bit of backtracking, though.

If you've been reading closely, and I'm sure you have (whatever), you'll remember that I've had multiple projects on tap for about a year and a half now.  You'll no doubt recall that I've only been quilting for a year and a half, so that means that I've always had lots of projects beginning and ending.  Trouble is that they don't end in the same order as they begin.  That means that documenting them in a blog such as this creates a bit of a challenge when one is deciding upon the order of presentation.

I've left this quilt until now because... uh... well... because... I felt like it.

Falling Mountain

After Becky's Herringbone Quilt, I finally had a quilt which had been actually designed before I
began sewing and which used bought fabrics.  It was another milestone in my quilting career.  While I was making her quilt, I was busy thinking about what to do next.  I'm always several projects behind because I'm constantly jotting ideas in my notebook.


I suppose it would be good to mention my notebook.  I highly recommend that you buy some kind of book to document your creations as well as your ideas.  I also write down specific machine settings that might come in handy later.  My book is both a functional notebook and also a show-off book.  I can use it to easily show someone photos of things that I've made.  I also use it when I go fabric shopping.  I can show the concept to someone at the LQS so that they understand what I'm trying to accomplish as they help me choose fabric.  It's the hub of all my quilting information.  Give it some thought, you might like having it on hand.  Now that I think about it, it's sort of like a blog on paper.  I'm an old guy; I like paper.

An Example from My Notebook

Becky's Quilt

Things are rolling along with this whole blog thing, don't ya think?  I'm figuring out all sorts of stuff as I go along... ya know... how to add a link and where the shift key is.  Sometimes, I even spell a word correctly.

Today, I thought that I'd talk about a quilt that I built last year for my daughter.  She's pretty wonderful.  If there's a soft spot in my grouchy heart, I think she found it.  They say that that's what daughters do.  I guess they're sneaky like that.  I'm not really sure how they do it.

Becky and the Muffalettas

Maybe it's that cute little fake pout that they do.  Seriously, who could resist that?  Oi vey, she's going to bankrupt me.  When I saw the ultrasound of her in the womb, I knew that I was doomed.



William's Quilt... Or... Friendship and Foolishness

It's hard to choose which quilt to talk about next because, since I started quilting, I've always had several projects going at once.  William's quilt was begun early in my quilting life, but it was completed a long time afterwards.  Should I order these posts by when a project was begun or when it was completed?

Can you see how difficult my life has become since I had the knuckle-headed notion to make this confounded blog?

I suppose that there is no right answer to this conundrum, so, per usual, I'll just do as I please.  Right now I feel like talking about the denim monster that I simply call "William's Quilt."

 This... is William.  He loves denim.

Remember my last post?  The one about the Denim Picnic Blanket?  I had an uncharacteristic lapse in judgment and showed it to William.

He's even more of a grouch than I am, by the way.  Hard to imagine, but true.

Even so, he actually likes some things, and denim is one of those things.  He was infatuated with that damn Picnic Blanket and asked me if I would make him something like it.

In my first lapse, I said, "Sure."

Explorations in Denim

In my previous post, I introduced my first quilt (I use that term pretty loosely about the Virgin Quilt). So I thought that perhaps I would just go on a journey about each quilt that I've built in more or less chronological order.

Again, this may be of no interest to anyone, but that just ain't my problem.

Way back when I first started sewing (it was only last year), I simply had no idea what I was doing.  I was actually amazed when I saw that I could quickly, neatly and securely make two pieces of fabric stick together with a sewing machine.  Seams were just cool.

That being the case, I naturally began to look for things to make seams with/on.  One of the first things that I saw that I could sew on was old pants: denim and khaki (twill) became my new victims.

The Virgin Quilt

July 5, 2016

Yesterday, I finally got up enough nerve to write some of what I've been thinking about quilting.  Truth be told, I feel a bit presumptuous about doing this at all.  I mean, who wants to read the ramblings of an old grouch, esp. upon the subject of quilting?  And, especially from a guy who's only been quilting for a year and a half.  And, from a guy! 

And the blog begins

Sooooo...  I was thinking that maybe I could share the adventure of quilting with my friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested.  If you stick around for another five seconds or so, you'll realize that I know nothing about blogging.  I wasn't even sure how to make a blog site; my fiance' had to help me.  But, now I have a place.  I even have my own domain: CurmudgeonlyQuilter.com.  That's pretty cool.

Stay posted as I figure this out.

Enter your email address at the top or bottom of the page so you can be notified of each new post.  Seriously, you know you want to.

TheCurmudgeon