Beth Ferrier’s Blog

It’s finally done, ready, and uploaded!

This year’s Block of the Month will be a series of wall hangings, all finishing about 37 x 42 inches, celebrating the seasons. Our first quilt, Be Still My Heart, features tulips, one of my favorite flowers.

It’s quite a job, to get everything in order to offer fabric kits. Just when I thought everything was ready to go, another detail would need my attention. I’m already working on the kit for the next quilt. (I may have it all figured out by the end of the year.)

Several people suggested the quilt’s name, thank you so much. It turned out to be the perfect name, for more than one reason. You see, while trying to get all the loose ends tied up for this quilt I was also dealing with a very sick dad. My father had a mild heart attack on the fifteenth. Tests showed major blockages and he was scheduled for a triple bypass. He came through the surgery okay, but a complication sent him back into surgery twelve hours later. The good news is that’s he’s doing fine! He’s been moved out of intensive care to a room on the cardiac floor. His heart muscle is a little weak and he really needs to quit smoking (like that will happen, he’s been smoking since he was a kid), but for now, we get to keep him a little longer.

So, for me, this happy quilt will remind me how blessed we are to have healthy and loving hearts.

I’m off to Spokane, Washington today. I’m looking forward to this first teaching trip of the year. See you there?

The goal was to be able to present the new block of the month project today. But then I decided that I’d like to offer fabric kits to go with the design. Shopping for yardage to sell is not nearly as much fun as shopping for fabric for my stash. Since it’s something that I don’t do all that often I don’t have a fabric rep or contacts at the manufacturers. Progress stalled.

 I have found this killer fabric to use for the applique, five shades across the width of the fabric! When it comes to applique it doesn’t get any better than that. Still working on the background fabric, but I am making progress.

These lovely sorbet colors came from two fabrics, medium and light. Isn’t that cool? The colors blend across the width, with magical swirls of shades. I especially like how the fabric reads as a solid, just begging for thread work and embellishment.

All of this applique came from just four fabrics! Oh, be still my heart.

So here’s the deal. This year, instead of one large project, we’ll be having four seasonal block of the month projects. The quilts will finish about 38 x 42 inches, a nice wall or lap size. We’ll post the projects in three steps each, and just as we’ve done for years, the steps will be free for one month.

New this year, we’re going to offer the complete pattern for sale, as a download, when the first step is posted. We’ll get our act together and offer fabric kits. I’d like to also offer thread or embellishment kits. And eventually I will combine the motifs from all four seasonal patterns into one really deluxe larger quilt. At least that’s the plan as it stands today.

I could use a little help with a name for this quilt. Ideas anyone?

It was a most decadent purchase, my Kitchenaid mixer. Almost twenty years ago, I bought it on sale at Kohls. Because it was so expensive, I felt guilty for ages. The guys benefitted from that guilt, as I produced batch after batch of yummy baked goods to justify the purchase.

I have been lusting after the larger professional version for several years. Just when I thought my big-batch cooking days were over I’ve found myself cooking for larger groups. As our family grows to include daughters-in-law, significant others and grandchildren I’ve found that my trusty mixer just isn’t up to the task.

It’s kind of like my sewing machines. Why do I need to upgrade when the one I have works mostly just fine? Sure the new machines have nifty new features that I would really use (like more space for machine quilting!), but my old trusty machine works just fine ninty percent of the time.

It could have been my Christmas present, but I said, no, it’s too expensive. And besides, the machine won’t fit on the counter, it’s too tall to fit under the cabinets. But then Kohls put it on sale after the holidays. I had $60 in Kohls credit for shopping earlier in the season, and money from returning a gift. And then I found a rebate on line. Kent said, what color do you want? And off we went.

I wasn’t sure about red, but Kent was. And it turns out to be a perfect red that I’m pretty sure will go with every color our kitchen might be in the future. (I guess I get to decide that, eh?)

But before we could take it out of the box we had to solve the counter problem. I admit to secretly hoping the machine would lead to a sorely needed kitchen remodel. (The magical work triangle overlaps the path from the back door to the rest of the house.) But that would be silly.

Instead, I found this perfect kitchen cart, on clearance at the local grocery/super store. The marble board, a Christmas gift from Kent, fits perfectly next to the dream machine. It’s excellent for rolling out dough, which I promptly did, making chicken pot pies for our weekly Sunday Dinner with the kids.

Last night I made home made spaghetti noodles. I put the pasta roller attachment on Big Red, and the cutting roller on my trusty old faithful, and I was a pasta making machine! Oh, my, what fun! It also ended any discussion on getting rid of the old machine.

There really is no substitute for the right tool (s) for the job. No, we don’t need a top of the line machine to do good work. But if you need justification for one, I can help you with that. Cookies, anyone?

There is a very long list of things I’d like to learn how to do. I’d like to learn to spin my own yarn. I’d like to raise chickens (which will never happen as long as we live downriver from a chemical plant, but I can dream). I’d love to learn how to throw pottery on a wheel. And it would be really good if I could learn how to take better pictures.

Everything that happens in my life is pretty much a crime of opportunity. Keeping chocolate morsels in the pantry significantly increases the likelihood of cookies, for example. I’ve gathered the supplies for painting on silk, painting lace, beading, machine embroidery, heirloom sewing and others just in case I have a dire need to paint, bead or embroider. It could happen. Over the last year or so I’ve been gathering the tools for rug hooking, or more precisely, punch needle rug hooking.

Several years ago (um, like maybe eight years ago, but who’s counting?) I started a rug with the traditional hook technique. I got as far as WE in “welcome” before I lost interest. Of course that hasn’t kept me from collecting wool to cut into strips. But still, I didn’t really enjoy using the hook to lift the strips to the front of the work, it hurt my hands. So, the base fabric hangs from the quilt hoop frame (that I bought thinking that I might like hand quilting someday), waiting.

After knitting myself crazy making the stranded projects for Christmas I decided the time was right to pull out those punchneedle supplies. I pushed a few lines around to create the design, snapped up a sharpie marker and set to work.

In no time at all I had the design traced and hooped, feeling very clever that I had the foresight to stash this stuff.

As with all things, there was a learning curve. My first leaves were too densely packed. The yarn was too thin for the punch needle, so I doubled it up. It didn’t occur to me to check the other punch needle I had stashed, trusting my memory that it was larger. (It isn’t.) But I found that I liked using two different shades at once, and the doubled strands filled the spaces faster.

Not bad for a first attempt. This thirteen inch circle took just a couple of hours and put a significant dent in my Christmas knitting leftover yarn. I guess it will become a pillow top, or something.

But what is an appliquist to do? The design just demanded that I applique it. I mean, really, how could I not?

Time to run to the stash and pull some fabrics the fine folks at Northcott sent me, gradation of shade and color across the width of the fabric, it’s an appliquist’s dream.

Here it is, laid out just as for the little rug thingie. It’s lovely, I really love it. I love the delicate shading that the fabric provides. I really like the circle showing through the background fabric, I’ve been thinking about how that should be incorporated into the design. 

But now I have a problem. What do I do with this design? I’m sort of obsessing on the Block of the Month for this year. I was thinking that I’d really like to do a Baltimore Album style quilt. Or a series of little quilts. Or, ideally, a series of little quilts that could be combined to make a Baltimore album quilt. My default setting for quilt design is to start with a queen size. I’m too practical. Everything must be useful, have a purpose. So, what do you think? A series of circles? A series of circles with no other plan than to let you decide what you’re doing with the end product? Arggg! Help me out here!

We repainted the kitchen way back at the beginning of summer. It was the first room to be redecorated when we moved in almost fifteen years ago. The room was so hideous that we started on it the afternoon we signed the papers. It was orange and black. No kidding. Orange and black, with a weird wallpaper border of European style children carrying swords, and burnt orange indoor-outdoor carpet.

Back then we painted the walls and woodwork several shades of white, and decorated with blue stenciling just under the crown molding. The curtains were made from the Smithsonian reproduction fabrics from the Civil War era, perfect for this 1860 house.

 The new wall color is a cheerful blue, almost periwinkle, pulled from my beloved Blue Willow dishes. The blue of the old curtains clashed with the new wall color and had to go. I found just the right fabrics several months ago. They’ve been stacked up next to my cutting table, just waiting their turn. 

 With the Christmas hub bub done it was finally time to get those curtains made. I’ve had the pattern forever, the copyright is 1992. I’ve used it again and again.

I like the new color. Blue always looks so clean and fresh, especially in light reflected by snow. I think I’m entering my blue phase. For years my favorite colors have been red and green. My dresser drawers are full of red clothes. My stash is dominated by red and green fabrics, even though they are usually the first pulled and used. (Clearly they are also the first purchased.)

But now that my hair is turning gray I find that red no longer suits me. I really like what pale aqua does for my skin tone. The cool tones of blue, turquoise and mint green are replacing fire engine red in my closet. I wonder how long it will be before it is also replaced in my quilts! I’ve noticed in classes that students often work with the same colors that they wear. What do you think? Do your closet and stash match?

Like many families, this year we decided to rein in our Christmas spending. While we’ve never been really extravagant, our budget had been slowly creeping upward. The truth is, especially when considering our siblings; we’re comfortable enough to be able to purchase pretty much anything gift-sized for ourselves. That means only one thing to me: time for handmade gifts. In years past I have baked my fool head off, providing holiday cookie trays for my sibs-in-law. Always well received, at first this seemed to be the perfect plan for this Christmas. But I just couldn’t get there. No, I wanted to do something new.

I’m sure it had a lot to do with this book, Color by Kristin, by Kristin Nicholas. I’ve been a fan since I discovered her first book and dove head first into a cardigan project (which is as yet unfinished, but that’s another story). Adding fuel to the fire, the fall issue of Knitter’s magazine had the cutest ever stranded hat and mittens.

So, off I trotted to the local yarn shop and loaded up with skeins of color. Just like shopping for fat quarters, I looked for happy colors in multiple shades where possible. I learned that knitters don’t have nearly the choices that quilters do, when it comes to a range of value.

As the Christmas season arrived I found myself in a very odd state. For the first time in maybe a bazillion years I had no big on-going projects. The book was published, the block of the month completed, all deadlines met, and almost three months until the next teaching trip.

I’ve discovered that I don’t do “time off” very well, (okay, buddies, you can stop laughing now), and I’m going to do my darnedest to never let that happen again. I think it’s my ADHD showing up. I really, really hate transitions. It’s always been hard to change gears, harder still to come to a complete stop and start up again.

Luckily, my time off arrived just in time for the Christmas holidays. Decorating and parties and gift making helped carry me through.

We celebrated birthdays. To honor my dad we met at the Outback restaurant where my niece is a server. He’s 80 this year, but somehow, he doesn’t really look old to me. It’s nearly impossible to get a good picture of him. (I think that must be where I got it). His smile often ends up looking rather like Jacob Marley’s open maw from Dicken’s Christmas Carol. (It would help if he left his teeth in, to be sure.)

The best part of the holidays, for me, has always been Christmas morning. The prep is done, another deadline met, time to relax and enjoy the day. Every year I vow to enjoy the process of Christmas preparations, but I’m not much of a shopper. If I’m not careful holiday shopping becomes a contest to find the most perfect gift, the one thing that will make each person’s life complete. Too much pressure! Instead, this year I tried to find little ways to say “I love you”, and keep the receipts handy.

Now that the boys are grown and mostly out on their own, they no longer wake us in the middle of the night, excited to see what’s under the tree. Christmas morning is most civilized now, beginning with breakfast at a leisurely 10 am, followed by opening gifts. We’re finished by early afternoon as the boys head off to spend time with their spouses’ families. It’s then that I relax with a sigh, collaspsing into a soft chair with a good book, to enjoy the quiet of the season.

Here it is, six hours shy of a new year. Not a new decade, as mathmatical purists will point out, but close enough. No more “two thousand and” to name the year, we’re familiar enough with this century to use its nickname, twenty-ten.

Astronomers tell us this is an extra special turn of the calendar. A blue moon will light our festivities. (Unless of course if you live in Saginaw, which has more cloudy, overcast days than Seattle. Fact.) The last time we had a blue moon on December 31st was way back in 1990.

That year I was 33. My oldest son was eight, my youngest just two. We were living in our new house in Wind Lake, Wisconsin, we’d only been there about eighteen months. Our lives were full with Cub Scouts and school projects. Life was pretty wild. All four boys are ADHD (really, really). Ours was a noisy, rambunctious household. Nobody walked if there was room to run, and there was always room to run. Anything with give was bounced on, including brothers sometimes.While “inside voices” were often requested they were as rare as tonight’s moon.

I’ll admit there were days that I thought I’d never survive them, the authorities would find my quivering body buried under a mountain of laundry. But mostly there was joy. Four healthy sons, four creative souls entrusted to us. Each day was an opportunity to help these precious monsters grow into the best they could be.

Nineteen years later, not only have I survived them, but they’ve survived me. They are all grown, and mostly launched. They have terrific humor, they work hard, they are good to their mates. On this Blue Moon New Years I’ll be relaxing with my best friend, probably watching old movies until it’s time to watch the ball drop, and then we’ll head off to sleep. We’ve done this new year thing a few times, after all, together for almost forty of them.

I’ll be an old woman, God willing, for the next Blue Moon New Years, nineteen years hence. When I look back at my middle aged self will I smile fondly for the choices I’ve made? Or, will I shake my head in regret for the chances not taken? It’s something to think about, on this special new year’s eve: where I have been, and where I will be. For now, I think I’ll go get started on those laugh lines around my eyes.

Have you heard of it? Quiltposium is a super deluxe, on-line quilt magazine. It’s full of great articles, quilt related and quilter related. I was invited to share one of my favorite Christmas traditions. (My article is on page 78.) There are some really nifty quilt patterns in this issue too.

Kent and I were married in 1977. I was a mere 19 years old, Kent just six months older. Now that we have children that age I understand better the terror our parents felt at the time. But we knew. We knew that we were meant to be together. We knew it would be tough at first, being married while in college. We knew also there was nothing we couldn’t do as long as we were together, and we were willing to start small, make do, and work our way forward.

Our first tree was so humble. We could only afford a few decorations, a couple of strands of tinsel garland and two strands of lights. A bag or two of cranberries, strung on crochet cotton, filled in some of the gaps. Homemade ornaments dotted the tree. On our way to our parents’ homes downstate at Christmas break we bought our first annual ornament. The little wooden train, bought in Christmas, MI, still graces our family tree each year.

This is our first kitten, called Radar because of his big ears, lounging on my very first quilt. It really was an awful, humble quilt. Cobbled together, all stitched by hand, cut from what ever cotton fabrics I could lay hands on. My skills left a lot to be desired.

But we all have to start somewhere, don’t we? Looking at that quilt it would be impossible to guess that I’d end up a professional in the quilt industry. No matter what we choose, our first steps are bound to be wobbly. It’s hard to remember that in our hurry up society. Giving ourselves time to practice, learn and grow is the best gift we’ll ever receive.

Oh, hello again!

I keep thinking that I need to update the blog, but then, for the life of me, I can’t think of a single clever thing to tell you. Life has been rather daily here lately, which, I must admit, has been devine.

After a small hiccup the last of of the pre-publication orders has been shipped. I placed the order for the magical Wash Away Applique Sheets and then left town for a week. Somehow the order was mixed up and didn’t ship until more than a week after. Geesh. But the box has arrived (and nearly emptied, thank you very much), and at last we are caught up with the early orders. Thanks so much for all your patience.

 On the home front, we’re busy celebrating birthdays and decorating for Christmas. My youngest son has just turned 21. He is a sweet and tenderhearted dork who can’t seem to get out of his own way. He still hasn’t learned, despite all the supporting evidence, that his mom is always right. (Not that she would ever say “I told you so”.)

We’re also celebrating the 21st birthday of my third son’s fiancee. Elaine has been a part of our family for a couple of years now, and we couldn’t be more delighted. She’s smart, hardworking, creative and absolutely perfect for Caleb.

And it’s a milestone birthday for my parents, who turn 75 (my mom) and 80 (my dad) today. Still active and vital, I wonder how old they will have to be to be old people.

I have been recently horrified to learn that I am fat. It’s amazing what a series of candid photos will show. This has come as quite a shock because, because, I have to tell you, I look pretty great in the mirror over the bathroom sink. I go for a routine colonoscopy on Thursday. I’m thinking it might be the perfect time to consider what kind of stuff I will put back into my newly cleaned system.

We have been busy decorating the house for Christmas.  We have five full size trees and several little trees, almost a tree in every room. I’ll post pictures in a couple of days. We’re hosting a family party on Sunday. We are supposed to get snow this week, just in time to set a cozy Christmas scene.

So there you have it. Daily life in the Ferrier household. Pretty boring and loving it.