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