Why do I do this? • February 2025 This and That

February 2, 2025August 23, 2025 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

BlueSky comment: “What a great hobby (and don’t be upset if it’s more than a hobby). These quilts are beautiful. Quilting is fascinating to me.”

Hobby. Hmmm. (This person obviously doesn’t know quilters.) I did hit a goal of mine on BlueSkySocial, but that’s not really what I’m looking for on there. (And if you are trying to learn this new space, the advice I got on Reddit was to skip the on-the-phone-app and go straight to the computer, as it’s easier. They were right.)

I’m looking for more of a retreat from Instagram/Meta/Facebook conglomerate, accelerated by logging into Facebook and checking the following:

Off-Facebook Activity, or in other words, all the info from OTHER businesses, not Meta. They funnel my data to Meta to build my profile; I had about 25 different entities who were sharing my info with Facebook. From following the instructions on Facebook, I learned I could download what Meta knew about me, etc. which was kind of interesting and scary all at once.

They believed I wanted to see posts about dogs, sports, cars, cars and trucks, types of sports, and I stopped reading there. A few of my friends have close relationships with *their* pets, so maybe that’s why on that one. But trucks?

Apparently I speak English, Spanish, French, Swiss (I assume that’s zh?), have no idea what “pt” is (Portuguese?), Italian, and Korean. One of my “Locations of Interest” is Melbourne, Australia. (Hi, Susan!)

This is my earliest Instagram profile. My first Instagram comment was in May 2012, to my friend Krista, as it was she who got me started on social media in the first place.

The real treasure was a huge file of all my Instagram posts (images and caption). I’ve been trying to build some Chatbooks, but apparently that company doesn’t talk to the Instagram code like they used to, so it’s been just me, filling the pages of my books slowly. This will help me go much faster to get them produced and printed. I saved that file on my photos drive, and have promised myself I will be checking that Meta setting again sooner, rather than later. Note: This above info is only the data from the Meta bunch. I wonder what I would have found if I’d downloaded everything from everyone (shudder).

A few photos from this week, beginning Monday, ending Saturday:

Final series of blocks, cornerstones and sashing. The center of the quilt is Cat’s Cradle blocks, sashed with cornerstones and pieced rectangles. Quilt design: Lisa Alexander & Susan Ache

I still have to do the borders. In the fourth photo, I am auditioning fabrics as I was running out and was determined not to buy more (can’t, really, because most of our fabric shops have closed down in our town, anyway). I went through everything, and found a few strips in my string-piecing bin, some other contenders deep in the stash stacks. So tonight while I listened to The Thursday Murders Club, Book Two, I finished piecing this section. I hope there are no mistakes.

Just in case you need this info.

Back to the quilt. I’m a person who generally averse to buying pre-cuts of any kind, but then had to ask myself as to why I hadn’t done something with what few bundles of fabrics I had? The collection of grey-green-cream was probably eight years old, with some fading along the folds (but it didn’t seem to affect how it looked, once cut up into all those wee triangles). I wanted to finish the bulk of the piecing in one week. Many reasons for this, mostly because I remembered when I used to crank out these heavily pieced quilt tops. Could I still do it? And then I ran across this quote:

I do not believe there is an artist in history who hasn’t asked themself — at least once — “Why do I do this?” The designation of “creator” may make for a glorious calling card, but as an occupation, it involves a disproportionate amount of spirit-crushing struggle and relatively few rewards.
–Mary Gabriel

Current Events (you know we talk about most everything on here)

A word or two about January’s Current Events: Many of us on Instagram & BlueSkySocial have been writing about our “spirit-crushing struggle” this week. My feeds have been filled with memes:

I knew there would be a transition between President Biden and President Trump, and I expected some chaos, given how things were the last time he was president. But I didn’t expect what we’ve had, and the plane crash after all the firings of the air safety personnel was really hard to take. But many people I know and love voted for him. I will do my best to give grace, because of them.

However, I will continue to monitor the situation where DOGE was given full access to the federal payment system (confession: my hair is on fire over this one). I can see the irony in my fretting about what Meta has on me (above), as compared with what the government has. I don’t think there is anywhere I can petition and download a file to see what personal information is being given to the owner of Twitter, a platform I quit because I didn’t trust their ability to keep my info safe and secure.

In a book I read this week, I found this: “Good work is a stay against despair” (Terry Tempest Williams). I need to work. I need to create. And even though it can make me wonder Why Do I Do This? once in a while, I still want to pull fabric from bins and stacks, cut it all up and put it back into a new order.

I’ll leave you with some pretty blooms from my February garden.

And a wonderful conversation with Peter Brown, the man who wrote The Wild Robot. (illustration from here)

Something to Think About

Filling the Days…with Quilting

January 30, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

I have treasured all your messages to me, and have read them over and over. Thank you for all your kind words on the occasion of the loss of my father. I will miss him greatly. I was unable to reply to you all individually; however, I appreciate what you said. I thought I would talk about some of the things that I’ve been doing to pass the time, fill the time, mark the time.

About a week before his death we knew the arc of Dad’s life was bending slowly to the earth, but it was Road to California Week, kind of an event around here and I had two classes, one from Lori Kennedy (on the left, above) and one from Annie Smith (right). I won the lottery on my teachers, not only for their classes, but for their humanity. I was pretty quiet on Monday during Lori’s but on Thursday when I walked into Annie’s, I had been crying the whole way there. Both women were sympathetic to this week of pre-grieving, kind souls who recognized a quilter in distress. I am glad to have met them both, and also to learn from them in many ways (yes, we talked death and it didn’t upset either of them). They both just sort of let me be creative on my own, far away from the goals of the class, so I just quilted in Lori’s, and drew a version of an appliqué block (“Citrus Grove”) in Annie’s.

They were kind.

Saturday, I had determined to pose by my quilt, and I did. It was down the aisle from a stupendous quilt so most people just walked by, but that’s the game. That’s my smile when I felt like like I was stuffed with cotton batting, trying to produce a smile, but really wanting to cry, but gosh — it was Road, and I did want to see the quilts. Ever have days like that? (There are lots of YouTube videos of Road 2024, if you can’t wait for me.)

This was in the Cherrywood exhibit and I loved the colors they chose this year: a punch of green and orange together, along with the black. This one is one of my favorites. And I loved Picatso (below), by Nikki Hill. Click on the cat to see the whole mini quilt. A classic.

Because I sewed on a sit-down with the feature of “optical reading” of motion in my class with Lori Kennedy, and because I already had a Sweet Sixteen sit-down machine, I went to the Handiquilter booth to see what they had. This was their newest: the Insight Table. It will help me keep my stitches more even (I hope). There’s now one in my quilting room, and I pinned up Happy Valley to practice on. But I haven’t yet quilted on it.

That next day, just at the end of last week, we had our trees trimmed, something which happens every two or three years. Remember, in California, things never stop growing; we even mow our lawns in the winter. Yes, there is some dormancy, but cutting off excess and grinding it up to get rid of it is something we do. This was also the week that my family was planning/not planning the funeral events for my Dad. In some upset moments, I wish I could have brought a truck like the one on the right and thrown in all my excess feelings and ground them up. Mom was pretty specific with what she wanted for her service, and we did it. Dad was also specific with what he wanted…but we aren’t doing it. I read about this online and this situation can be common with the death of the remaining parent. Siblings can split up over this sort of thing (I have friends who have lost their whole family).

Families are more fragile than trees.

I brought this quilt to the finish line. My husband helped me sort out the borders for this 2023 temperature quilt, and it’s ready to go to my quilter’s.

Remember how I wrote about that local quilt store that closed at the end of the year around here? I put some of that fabric to good use with this backing. If you are doing a Temperature Quilt, buy yourself a tea towel on ETSY with the calendar on it. I also added a stylized image of California and the temperature key I also finished:

I had chatted with Lori about the temperature quilts she and her sister were making in Minnesota, after seeing mine. When we talked later that week, she told me she liked my free pattern, but that I’d made a mistake: the temperatures only went to 36 degrees on the low side. Yeah, she’s right. It’s a California scale. We laughed about it and she said she’d add more. (And, um, don’t judge the embroidery. I don’t know why I can’t do the stem stitch. I do much better when it’s the back stitch.)

Nights this past couple of weeks have been hard. I saw that inscription when we visited Chicago this past September and Isaac Barrow was right. First I was reading Home, by Marilyn Robinson, and the ending of that book echoed what was going on in our family: the family being called home as the father was fading. One of the main characters, Glory, tended to cry — boy, could I identify with her. It was a powerful book of loss, of love, and a nod to the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Then I turned to something completely different: a sheep mystery, Three Bags Full, translated from the German. Both were “effectual comforters”. Three Bags Full was a “cheerful companion,” and Home was a “wholesome counselor.” I decided to read them in real book form, as I needed to hold onto something tangible at night in those evening hours that are hard to pass. We also are enjoying the PBS series All Creatures Great and Small. I’m glad these quiet stories are here.

My friend Charlotte gave me this Amaryllis for Christmas, and everyday we notice changes: from one blossom, to two, and now two more are opening up to make four. She says to plant it in the garden when I’m done with it, and it will come up every year. I’m in this interesting “slowed-down time” — different from than when my mother died — where I take life at a less hectic pace: quiet dramas on television, watching lilies bloom, and reading paper books. The grief is not as profound, I can tell. Just different. Next week I’m grabbing my children who are coming up for the committal and we’ll be clearing out my parent’s apartment. It does make me re-evaluate what I’m hanging on to, and getting rid of.

I’ve been trying to be diligent about keeping up with my morning walks, and today — after I dropped Three Bags Full at the library dropbox downtown — I walked around those streets. I thought the Katarina tile was appropriate to what I’m going through.

If only we could just open a faded red door to get more power for ourselves.

It says: Be Kind to Yourself Today.

Quilts

Temperature Quilt Top • January 2020

January 15, 2020November 26, 2023 Elizabeth E.22 Comments

One-thousand-ninety-five triangles along with six rectangles make up the face of this heat map quilt, cataloging the temperatures and rainfall of Riverside, California in 2019. I have no plans to make another, but I was pretty proud of myself for keeping up with this, faltering only in my crazybusy November to December (finishing those two months in the first few days of January — which is why I couldn’t get the holiday decorations down until January 7th).

temp colors and chart — **UPDATED DECEMBER 2023:** The fabric line I use is called Painter’s Palette by Paintbrush Studios. You can purchase the full line by the yard at Keepsake Studios. Of the four numbers written at the top of the fabric square, the color numbers are the three numbers written on the right side. The first number is for cataloging.

Here is the original Temperature Quilt Key, for those on IG who keep asking for it (it lives here, on the blog); it was first published early in the year, outlinging my intents and purposes.

The un-adorned face of the quilt, today in my sewing room.

I’m thinking of a narrow border before I begin to add other blocks around this quilt, to make it a bit larger.

I embroidered the temps on the corresponding triangles in my Temperature Quilt Key.

I have a lot of triangles leftover, so I thought I’d sew them together, fit them into a pattern, somehow, and sew them on the outside. Seoul Korea Triangle Doorway

I guess I have in mind the doorway we saw in Seoul, triangles everywhere.

Thought I’d flash up here a photo of me with four of my amazing granddaughters. I have two more, just as far away. They make me look young.

Danielle agreed to help me lay out the interior of my North Country Patchwork Quilt. I finished all the interior pieces; now on to the rings.

While this shows just the sky quilted, I have now finished the quilting on My Small World. I’m still looking for a good title for this quilt, but My Small World is such a great shorthand. I’m determined to have it finished by Road to California, as I’m in two different classes taught by Jen Kingwell, who created this quilt. Yep, I want her to sign a label. Which means I have to get the binding on, then make the label.

Finished this, too, just about the time I finished up the quilting. I could listen to narrator on this audio book read the phone directory, she’s that good, but the novel is wonderful by itself.

Giveaway · Something to Think About

creative block

July 20, 2017July 20, 2017 Elizabeth E.23 Comments

(Yes. Lower case title, just to reclaim some of my quirkiness.)

I recently posted about taking a break from the creative world, from the quilty world, from whatever and while I was gone, I had some to time to think about how I’d gotten to that non-creative place.

irons in a fire

I’d say, for me it was a factor of four: Time, Health, and Mental/Physical Fatigue, as well as a Too Much to Do. My Dad used to say “Too many irons in the fire put out the flame.” While a reference to the bars of iron that blacksmiths use, I did have too much going on.

I was intrigued with the idea of Creative Block, and one article “7 Types of Creative Block and What to Do About Them,” from my favorite place online (99U) discussed this issue, that apparently is a very-much-real thing. In that piece, I liked the sub-topic of Work habits that don’t work, as I have been struggling to (re)learn three new computer programs: EQ7 (I learn it, then forget it, and there’s so many hurdles with the design of this software…but then that’s another post), Affinity Photo (to replace Photoshop) and Affinity Designer (to replace Illustrator). Three more irons in that proverbial fire.

99U’s advice to “[s]tep back and take a good look at how you’re working, and where the pain points are….If you don’t have enough energy, are you working at the right time of day? If you feel paralyzed by freedom, introduce more structure and order into your day. If you feel constrained by routine, find room for improvisation” felt like it was just for me.

I always love the Brain Pickings articles, and the review on a book from Danielle Krysa (Creative Block: Get Unstuck, Discover New Ideas. Advice & Projects from 50 Successful Artists) seems to hit some of those stuck spots:

Creative Block_Alex Cornell

Jessica Bell noted that “When I can’t make progress, it is often because I am mentally scattered; this happens when I am overcommitted or have a schedule without any breathing room in it. I have to have a lot of space and quiet in my head to think my best thoughts. An artist I admire told me a few years ago that “you can’t make art in the cracks.” Carving out a block of time devoted to nothing else but the pursuit of new work has never steered me wrong.”

So, Miss Gasoline Station stepped aside and made space for some creative time. I’ll be posting a few projects in the next post, but since it’s summer and it’s time to play, it’s good to keep a balance between working and quilting and cooking and playing and family and friends…

Family Reunion_stone house — Eastmond Family Reunion, atop Brian Head Peak (11,000+ feet)

Thanks to all of you who wrote and left comments on my last post. We headed out that day for a family reunion and I left the keyboard behind, but I read them all and appreciated your encouragement. I’m slipping back into the creative life, one stitch at a time.

7 Magic Mountains The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong. –Thomas Carlyle

Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass and a book of rules;
And each must make, ere life is flown,
A stumbling block or a stepping stone.

–R. L. Sharpe

Because who knows what might spur your creativity, I’ve got some books to give away. If what I’m giving away (this will go on, erratically, for several posts) tickles your fancy or appeals to you in some way, if you leave a comment, please let me know you’d like to enter the giveaway. Some of the books are ones I’ve purchased and read, and no longer need; others were publisher giveaways at Quilt Market, and it’s time to pass them on.

Grifka Book1

The first one is Lines by Design by Debbie Grifka, a lovely book on how to make elegant modern quilts. Good luck! Giveaway will close in a few days and I’ll contact the winner by email and get it sent out.