Distractions in Life

This new 2024 has not been smooth running for me.  Many of you knew about my challenges with the Quilt Inc who organized the show in Houston.  I ended that unfortunate incidence in February as you can read about it here.   To help me to feel better, I started working on the charity quilt for my guild, the VMQG.  

Then came the turbulence in March.  My husband's older brother, who was a good son, a great husband, a kind and loving father and a beloved brother, unexpectedly passed away.  Everything in our lives were put on hold that month and we all gathered around his brother's family with love and support.  We went up and down on the roller coaster of life, laughed and cried together.  We held on to one another and we still keep that bond going.

Then came April, I thought that things had settled down and I could get back to making and creating.  Little did I know that life still had more rocks to throw in my way.  On the morning of April 2nd, I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood as I often do.  Neighbors are out walking and running their dogs.  A young lady was running her German shepherd/Husky mix dog.  I saw them about 10 feet away so I walked closer to the curb to give them more room to pass.  As they were passing me, the dog jumped up and bit me on the upper left arm.  It was an unprovoked attack and he knocked me down onto the curb.  The dog charged at me again but I rolled onto the lawn to avoid the second attack.  There was a group of five people who saw the whole thing, they rushed over to help me.  I was in total shock and bleeding.   Thank goodness for good Samaritans.  They helped me and the young lady, who was in a worse state of shock than me.  Couple of the ladies from the group walked me back home and the owner of the dog took me to get medical care.  I'm better now, the wounds are all healed.  There are unsightly scars but I'm ok.  

I went into depression a little bit while I was recovering from the wound.  I didn't want to sew, I just had to stop and stay still for awhile.  One scripture came to my mind: Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God.....".    I can't help stop thinking about the distractions, or as I call them; rocks, in this life that demand our attention.  

Now, I continue working on the charity project and my Denim quilt projects.  I'm making progress on the quilting of the Blue House quilt. This is what's on my design wall right now.

 

I keep rotating the circle piece around.  I'm planning to use inset circle technique for this piece.  In a certain angle, it reminds me of a pacman game.  Can't wait to see how this quilt will look like in the near future. 

What to do when life throws you curve balls?  Do the best you can to deal with them.  Be still when you can, meditate and remember that you're not alone.  I'm grateful for family, kind people on the street and friends around me.  

Have a great day.  May God bless you always.

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

 

 BOMs Away at What a Hoot Quilts (Monday)

To Do Tuesday  hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese  (Thursday)

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More  (Friday)

First Charity Project for The VMQG

 Hi Everyone,

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Can you believe I haven't sewn a stitch since last December?  I took a break from sewing/creating last December to deal with an issue that I will share later in this post.  I don't believe in sewing when I'm not in a good spirit; none of the seams will be straight or be what you want them to be!!  LOL.

Now I decided to break through this awful experience and start anew.  What can be better to cure the blues than doing something for someone else?  At our last guild meeting, I picked up a project to do.

 

These are the scraps that I got.  I'm supposed to make a quilt top, or maybe two small ones, using a pattern called Turning Twenty by Tricia Cribbs.  I've never used this pattern before and I'm excited to get started.  

I spent a few days cutting all the needed pieces out.  I added some coordinated fabric from my stash.  I put some pieces on the design wall and cut some more. 

 

I plan to make two quilt tops.  One is a lap size, above, and one is a baby size.  Next is piecing the blocks together and putting them back on the design wall for the final layout.

Enter at you own risk!!

The following content is the hardest thing for me to write.  I am an artist who is happy just to create.  I always try to look for goodness in everything and everyone around me.  I'm publishing this post as a warning to all quilters out there; be real careful when you submit your quilt into shows.

I had two quilts in the IQF Houston show last fall.  The show was organized and run by Quilt Inc., which Karey Bresenhan is the founder and president.  I sent the quilts to them on June 19, 2023.  The show was in November and I got my quilts back on December 5.  When I opened up the package, one of the quilts has brownish stains on it.  The stains form a rectangle shape along the perimeter of the quilt, about 4-5 inches from the edges.  They are more obvious on the back of the quilt, but seeped through to the front as well.  They can be seen with the naked eye.  I was so shocked to see them on my quilt.   I'll let you be the judge. 

 

This picture was taken when the quilt came back.

 

This picture was taken at the submission time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stains continue along the bottom edge.

The stains at the bottom left corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I immediately wrote an email to the Special Exhibition team who I had been corresponding with from the beginning, and handled my quilts for the exhibition.  I inquired for information about what happened and asked them to investigate.  After a week of not hearing anything back, I wrote another email to the manager of the group, again asking them to investigate.  She wrote back and said that the office was closed for the holidays and she would look into the matter when they come back in January, and would contact their fabric specialist.  She asked for more pictures.  The pictures above are some of which I emailed to her.  I also offered to send back the quilt so that the fabric specialist could take a closer look.  She declined.

In January, she wrote me saying that the quilt already had stains on it when they received it, but it's customary for them to show quilts with imperfections and the artists are not contacted.  She said she compared the submission picture to the receiving pictures when the quilt was received in Houston.  Here are the two pictures she sent me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture on the left was my submission picture.  The other picture was one of the attachments in the email I sent.  She didn't show me any 'so called' receiving pictures to prove her case that the stains were pre-existing.   She totally ignored the stains that I pointed out in the pictures of the back of the quilt.

She then proceeded to say that the stains might have been caused by a disappearing ink pen marker, and then offered to pay for it to be dry-cleaned which I declined.  I did not use a disappearing ink pen on my quilt!  It's puzzling to me that the specialist could determine and come to a conclusion about the quilt without seeing or inspecting the real quilt. 

It seemed that no one in the Special Exhibition team would take any responsibility for this problem.  First, they ignored my inquiries then shifted the blame on to me.  I did not accept this answer, and I then sent an email, explaining the situation to the VP of Shows and Show Director and again asked them to investigate the matter.  I did not receive any response.  

After two weeks of not hearing anything from the VP, I then escalated the matter to the President of the Quilt Inc.  The manager of the Special Exhibition moved on to another position in the organization and no longer handled this matter.  So, I'm back to square one.  As of the present time, I have received no further response.

I was very upset and disappointed by the lack of care and accountability on their part.  I wanted an apology and to make sure that this sort of thing won't happen to any other quilters who enter quilts into their show.  I have decided that I will move on and consider this as "water under the bridge".  Life is too short for me to carry this excess baggage.  There will be more joy and blessings in life despite of this terrible experience. 

My dear quilty friends, let my bad experience be a cautionary tale.  Some show organizers may not handle your quilt with the care and attention that you expect. I understand that life happens, and if the unexpected happens to your quilt and it is returned in a lesser state than when you sent it, not all people may take responsibility for it while it was in their care.  Be sure to take lots of pictures before sending in the quilts and know the risks.  Even though the pictures don't seem to help my case, they don't lie.  In that, I am sure.

Have a wonderful week and thanks for visiting.

Margo

 

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

 

To Do Tuesday  hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese  (Thursday)

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty (Friday)

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More  (Friday)

 

 

Happy New Year

I hope your Holidays were glorious and happy with family and friends.  Ours were great, quiet and relaxing ones.

It's good to look back in the past year before embarking on the new one, even if it's already here.  I realized that I didn't finish many new quilts last year, only 3 quilts to be exact.  You can see my year summed up in this picture below. 

 

My top 8 projects of 2023. 

Top row:  These tops are for charity organizations; top 1 and 2 went to Quilting for Community and the third top went to Valley MQG’s Philanthropy. 

Middle row:  These quilts are my favorite. The first quilt is a gift for a dear friend’s grandson. It’s the second quilt in the 'Marble' series. The second quilt is 'Modern Time' which got to go to the IQF in Houston last fall.  I have more horrifying story to tell about this quilt in a later post.

 

The third row:  These quilts are the essence of me. 

• The first quilt is my first free motion quilting done on a longarm machine.  I've been wanting to do a free motion quilting, but was too intimidated to do it on a domestic machine because of the size of the quilt.  I rented time on the longarm from the Quilting for Community organization to do the quilting after taking a longarm quilting class from them. What a rush!! 

• The second quilt is a gift to another friend’s grandson. It’s the first quilt in the 'Marble' series. From this design, more inspirations emerged. 

• The third quilt is called 'The Blue House'.  It’s a work in progress, but it’s already become the base of more minimalist quilts.

All my work is a representation of me. My ideas as a person/quilter is to always seek new knowledge, new ideas, and learn new things. The curiosity is constantly on my mind.  I think I was born with  "what if" permanently etched in my brain.  LOL.

 

I like to welcome the new year with a new, fresh attitude.  2024 will be filled with new projects, renewed old projects and whatever comes my way!!  Now what is in store for me this year?

1. I want to learn FMQ on my domestic machine. I decided that this year is perfect for it. Don't ask why. :-)
2. I will get back to writing patterns for the quilts that I've made up to now.   Last count, I have 12 quilts that I don't have written instructions for.   My goal is to write at least 6 patterns this year.  Good thing I have notes to some of them. Whew! 
3. Start transforming some ideas into a reality.

Everyday, I'm grateful and thank God for another beautiful day.  In my vegetable garden, I found wonders that never cease to amaze me.  It's my happy place right next to my sewing room.  This January marks 8 years of my surviving a brain surgery.  How quickly time has gone by and how much I have come to realize that life is fragile and precious.  Love people around you, embrace them and let them know that you love and appreciate them.

Thank you for visiting and being good to me.  May your days be filled with blessings and happiness.

 

Margo

 

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

 

To Do Tuesday  hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese  (Thursday)

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty (Friday)

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More  (Friday)