When Lynne Meets Julie

I "met" Julie sometime between 2007 and 2008 while we both participated in Tonya Ricucci's online class of free pieced letters. I had never had a quilt quilted, and it was Julie who recommended Chris Ballard to quilt the quilt of mine that is featured in Tonya's book.

Julie and I both have words on the cover of Tonya's book. Mine is GROW...

Julie made the word LEAP.

We became buddies online commenting on each other's work making letters, and she ordered a kitty quilt in August of 2008. I remember that particularly, because I received her request the day after the death of my goddaughter Violette.

We began to communicate directly. Emails flew back and forth with regularity.
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Selvage quilts became popular at that time, and I made a few tote bags with them. Julie asked if I would make one for her in the spring of 2010.

We must have been getting really friendly, because Julie sent me this quilt for my birthday that year. Around the same time, we decided to do a quilt swap. I had made two Rules quilts, one as a mini swap with a friend in Australia, the other with Tonya herself. Julie wanted a Rules quilt too, but she wanted extras - asterisks, butterflies, and the way I used multiple fabrics in each letter.

The result was the quilt, "No Rules For Julie." It has everything she asked for. I held nothing back. I went all out. Originally I had expected the quilt to take me a week, but I had earlier that summer discovered the magic of using the prints in the fabrics to do what Wanda Hansen describes as "the heavy lifting."

Each letter took much longer the new way. I worked on the letters when I was on vacation one week in July (Wimbledon was on TV that week, and it was the year of John Isner's historic three day match.) At the end of five full days of work, I had only made 33 letters. That's six letters A DAY! I worked ALL DAY, EVERY DAY!

It took me a full month to complete the top. I even put myself in the quilt - that orange bird, I told Julie (who had said she was not particularly fond of orange) was her "noisy friend from New Hampshire."

The quilt is one of my very best, and hangs proudly in the foyer of Julie's house. Originally planned to hang in her studio, that all changed when her husband Larry first saw the quilt. "He looked, and looked, and looked..." I remember Julie telling me. "He never does that." He was disappointed when she told him the quilt was going to hang in her studio, and changed the location.

When the quilt was finished, I brought it over to show my Mom. She was very quiet for a few minutes as she took it all in. Then, "F**k." [yes, mom said THAT four letter word.]

"F**k"  another pause. She shook her head.

"F**k". Then she sighed and looked up at me. "Is she worth it?"

"Yes, Ma, she is."


And today, even more so. Julie is my very best friend.

Julie & Me

My best pal Julie (that's her on the right) and I have known each other since August of 2008, and we have met each other in person twice. This photo, above, was taken the second (and last) time we ever got together. This was taken in June 2014 at the Zimmerman House in Manchester NH. Julie came up to New England that summer to see the Quilts in Color show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

I was thinking last night that I should tell our story, since so much of it has happened online and behind the scenes.

Julie helped me to achieve one of the big goals on my bucket list, a visit to the Gateway Arch in St Louis MO. It was one of the highlights of my life, and I will never forget it.

A German tourist took this picture of us that day, in October 2013.

This is Julie with Glorious, the diamond quilt we designed together in 2018.

This is Julie (left) and Chris Ballard, who quilted my quilt Letters From Home, in 2009.

This is me in 2010 with Obsolescence, the quilt Julie made for me as part of a swap.

 Here is Julie in 2010 with No Rules for Julie, the quilt I made for her for the swap.


Way back when when she and I were discussing the idea of swapping quilts, Julie was very particular and very specific about what she wanted. What did I want? "That green quilt you are making. That's very you," I told her. "That's interesting" she replied, "as I am just coming to realize that green is a signature color for me."


So how did Julie and I first get connected? She wanted me to make a Gizzy quilt for her tuxedo cat, Angel (Julie is holding Angel in one of the pictures above.) What did I make?

Yeah, I knew what I was doing last year when I ordered the book GREEN, for her for Christmas.

Even though we have been together twice, and we live 1127 miles apart, we talk on the phone about once a month (in marathon 2 hour conversations we literally schedule in advance), we are now in contact quite frequently. We probably text two or three times a week, even if it's just to share pictures of our grandkids, but usually it's to comment on what we are doing in the quilt studio.

Julie and I have a long story, and it's pretty nifty. I will tell the story over the next few days. We have shared some of the same life experiences (we became grandmothers within months of each other). We have inspired each other, and we have helped each other. We get ideas from one another, and we give each other honest critiques. I always want to hear what Julie has to say.

Gray and Yellow

For many years you couldn't buy gray fabric, but that has changed. I bought some to make a quilt years ago, but the fabric got shanghai'd into another quilt.

This flimsy, Partly Sunny, made by Julie Sefton, arrived at my house last month, but I've had too much going on to write about it. Julie designed the quilt back in November 2017, but she didn't sew it together this way because the thought of sewing 320 blocks one at a time was too daunting. You can read the story here. I fell in love with the original version, and was dismayed when she sewed the blocks in a different layout.

As often as we talk on the phone, I never told her what I thought of the original version until over a year later. Julie admitted she was not in love with her revised version, and several months later took the flimsy apart and reassembled it. You can read that story here.

I told her I loved the flimsy so much I'd give her money for it. (I'm pretty sure that went in one ear and out the other, but that didn't stop me from repeating it as often as I felt necessary.)

At the beginning of this year I made this flimsy, Geode, which, while it didn't thrill me, enamored Julie.

Now, Julie is my best buddy, and she and I have exchanged quilts, and even designed a few together, even though we live 1,127 miles apart (as the crow flies). There was only one thing to do. Put it in a package and send it to her. So that's exactly what I did, but I didn't tell Julie it was coming. I wanted it to be a surprise. It was. You can read about it here.

A few days later, Partly Sunny arrived on my desk. I had forgotten the HSTs were 3". All quilts are beautiful in pictures, and even better in real life. This one is no exception. I loved looking at the fabrics.

Over the weekend I made a trip to Quilted Threads and bought this lovely gray floral print. I'll use it for the binding, but I think I should get more and use it as the backing.

Quilty friends are the best.

Old and New

This was the border of the Firebird quilt, but it really didn't work.

So I ripped it out.

Yup, I did.

I will replace it with this yellow in the next few days.

As for the working in the office, here is a shot of the inside of the closet. In this room I am cleaning, sorting, and cleaning out every single shelf, drawer, folder, table, desk in there. I've completely reorganized the inside of the closet. Now it is time to tackle the paper tiger.

Quite frankly, until I'm done in the office, I'm not going to be doing much in the studio.




then again, you know me. If an idea hits me just right...

Love, Love, Love

My son, his cat, and the Magic Carpet quilt I made. Love, love, love. This picture tells why we make quilts.

Yeah.

Roomba Redux

 

 So yesterday Margie asked me about the Roomba.

About two years ago I decided to get a robotic vacuum cleaner. I searched Amazon, and read all the reviews. I bought their recommended model a Deebot. I paid $199 for it.

So here's the thing. You have to really THINK about what you want. I live on one floor. I have linoleum and wall to wall carpeting. I have a cat. I do not have throw rugs with fringe or tassels. I don't have a lot of electrical cords that a robotic vacuum cleaner can get stuck on.

I bought the Deebot and loved it. Thing was, when I got it it would run for about 90 minutes, and it moved around randomly, with no set pattern I could discern. I could set it to run, and it did, and when it ran out of juice it would find it's charging station and that was that. The longer I had it though, the less it ran, until after I'd had it a year it would only run for 45 minutes, and it wasn't enough time to clean the whole house.

There were some nice features, however. It had a "spot clean" which means I could set it on a particularly messy spot and it would go round and round in ever increasing circles until it had cleaned everything that was there, and then it would stop. I could tell it to clean one room. I could tell it to do the edges of a room. It had a remote, and I could run it from an app on my phone. It had a good sized bin, so I didn't really empty it more than once a week.

The Deebot also let me know if the "consumables" (brushes and pickup rollers) needed to be replaced, so I could check at a glance. (The Roomba expects me to know that on my own.) The Deebot also had a hard time finding the charging station when it ran out of juice. It could wander around the house for a half an hour until it "found mommy." (The Roomba knows EXACTLY where to find it, and it's rather amusing to watch it navigate its way around the house to get there.)

But like I said, the Deebot was running less and less, and wouldn't clean the whole house in one pass. I had to build a physical barrier to keep it from getting stuck under the front edge of the dishwasher, and it would get hung up near Millie's litter box, and I had to set another physical barrier to keep it out of my sewing studio (because there was a slight drop down in floor level, and while it could go DOWN, it could not make it back UP without getting stuck, and I didn't want it running in there on its own anyway. These barriers were not good. I and my guests often tripped over them. I'm 65 and I already have osteoporosis. A fall is not what I need.

The Roomba was a lot more expensive, well over $500, and while it won't run more than 45 minutes or so, when it runs out of juice, it goes back to the charging station to get charged up, then it continues the job. It does that as many times as it has to to clean my whole house. (For the record, I have it scheduled to start every day at 9 AM, and I get a text message about noon that it has completed the job. I know it charges twice.) The bin is a bit smaller, so every day after I hang up my coat, I empty the bin. (the Roomba lives next to the coat closet.) No big deal.

The Roomba, however, is a robot at heart. It vacuums in a back and forth motion, going from one end of the room to the other, then shifts to the side, and does it again. So it ABSOLUTELY covers everything. My house always looks good. I trust it so much I don't even bother to clean the food debris off my kitchen counters very thoroughly, I just brush them on the floor. The Roomba will pick it all up. (Yeah, I know.)

At the end of every job, the Roomba sends me a map of the job. Trust me when I tell you, it goes EVERYWHERE. My house is always, divinely clean, and there is always stuff to empty. It really is great.

The Roomba came with a gizmo that is a "virtual barrier." I bought second one. The first prevents it from going into the studio. The second keeps it away from Millie's litter box (like in the picture above.)

Millie's food dishes proved to be a different problem. Having used the two virtual barriers already, I would have had to buy a third (and they are not cheap - about $30 - $45 each) to keep the Roomba from knocking her food bowl over. I had tried putting her food in a tray, but both robots climbed right over the edge, and got stuck. I didn't want to use a barrier anyway, I wanted the Roomba to pick up the dried bits Millie left around.

The solution turned out to be elegantly simple - get something to keep her food dishes higher than the Roomba. Sure I could have bought a lot of useful, cheap, ugly things, but this one was good looking. Millie already has a water fountain that she loves, so I don't need to keep one of these bowls filled with water. She's a messy eater. Every other day or so I clean it off, but the Roomba doesn't spill the food so I'm good with it.

One other thing: I inherited my grandmother's Duncan Phyffe banquet-sized, drop leaf Mahogany dining room table (It opens to almost 12 feet long by almost 48" wide). It has these curved legs. The Deebot would regularly get stuck on one. It was like it was trying to hump it, and of course it would get stuck. At least once a week I'd get home and find it stuck under there. The Roomba never gets stuck that way.

I have cord covers for electrical cords that have to lie on the floor for some distance before they get to an outlet, but that was an easy fix. I use my laptop on my dining room table, and the cord lies on the floor. So instead of leaving it on the table when I am gone, I move it to the kitchen counter, and loop the extra cable around it, so the cord isn't resting on the floor. This way the Roomba doesn't catch the cord and pull it down.

I put the DeeBot in the studio. When I am ready for a good clean in there, I make sure nothing is on the design wall (because it would blow the stuff off) and pick up the cords and all the large scraps of fabric that might be on the floor. Then I turn it on and let it go to work. Works fine.

Millie is no longer afraid of either one. She will NOT sit on it, and gives them the evil eye when they go past her, but they can't get into her napping spots, so she's happy.

I'm amazed at the stuff they pick up. Pins, push pins, stray needles, fabric scraps, buttons, onion skins, peppercorns, cat hair, along with all the other dust and stuff. No they are not good at getting anything sticky or wet, and if I find a dried up hairball stuck to the carpet, it's me that's got to get it loose so the vacuum will pick up the debris, but seriously, that isn't often.

Like I said the first two times, I don't know why everybody DOESN'T have these. My house always looks good, and I am not stuck doing the work.

So if you're interested, figure out what you need and do your research. I've included the links to my original posts about each device below. Please also read the comments on each.



Here's my original post about the "Real Roomba".

Here's the original post about the DeeBot.

Making Scrap Slab Triangles

I've got a lot going on at home. I just finished my taxes (yay!) and I'm determined to finally organize my office. It's the room where the paper tiger rules, and everything else goes to die, and I really want to clear all that out. There are also things in there I haven't touched since I moved in. I've decided to try to work in there for a at least a half hour a day. My goal is to get a full hour in. So far I've done that, and although it's slow going, I'm feeling good about it.

Once I've fulfilled my self imposed task of cleaning out stuff in the office, I reward myself by spending some time in the studio. Since I like the Whirlygig quilt more than I thought I would, I decided to make scrap slabs and cut triangles from them. I like seeing how the triangles look after I've cut them from the slab. Unless you line them back up like I did here, they don't look like they are connected at all!



If you want to make a scrap slab quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Whirlygig, Finished!!

The Whirlygig quilt is finished!

I like taking beauty shots of all my quilts, and here this one is on the snow in my yard.

I really love the quilting that Janet Lee did on this.

The backing on this quilt is really fun!



This Scrap Slab quilt is easy to make, and designed to use your scraps! There are lots of different layouts! You can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

And Sew On...

As I am sure you are all aware, sewing can be relaxing and soothing,

and just the kind of thing you need when life around you gets really stressful.

it's nice to have something meditative to do.

Over the last few days I've been doing just that, sewing the binding on the Whirlygig quilt.

Here's the whole thing, before it was quilted, for those of you who can't remember it. I like the way it looks like it's fluttering in the wind (hence the name.)


This is a Scrap Slab quilt, and you can get my tutorial here.

Down the Drain... NOT

We all know that "stuff" happens and when it does it's always at the wrong time. After working in the studio Sunday morning, I walked into the bathroom to take a shower.

The floor was wet. That was weird. I wiped it up. It leaked more. I pulled the shower curtain aside and the tub looked like my garbage disposal threw up in it.

So you can see where this is going...

The "guy" came and poked around. Nothing seemed to be working. He went under my house and came back to tell me I had a clogged drain pipe and he had to replace it.

A couple hours later, after replacing a section of 3" diameter pipe that was apparently plugged up solid, everything was running much better.

So much for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.



You know what they say about when it rains...

Kismet

I've been working on my Zebras Quilts tutorial all morning. I generally start with pictures, because I think in pictures. If my pictures tell the story, I know I'm on the right track. Once I have the pictures arranged, I can add the words to tell the story. So I start with pictures, and all the things I want my readers to know. Then I arrange them in a way that makes sense to me. If I don't have a picture, I go into the studio and take one, like this:

Sometimes kismet happens, like when I set my laptop on the couch so I could go get something. The sun came out, cast a shadow on the pillow, and omigoodness, a Zebra effect!






Judy, I use Powerpoint.

Catching up!

I did it. I had a dental implant yesterday. I was really worried about it. When I had the original meeting, I was asked if I wanted be awake or sedated, my reply was "I'd rather be in California." In the end I decided to be sedated. As the techs prepared me yesterday, I was wearing a turtleneck, and they had problems getting the leads to stay connected. "When you told me what to do to get ready, you didn't say anything about what I should wear," I said.  "Well, we have some t-shirts..." the tech said, and you can see that I opted for a t-shirt.

So I have a list of meds to take and rules to follow for the next few days, and I have to NOT chew on that side of my mouth for three to four months! Then I'll need a crown. Lucky me.


With that emotional event in the proverbial rear view mirror, I can get going on the new tutorial for the Zebras quilts. I need some step-by-step pictures, however, and that means I have to make another Zebras quilt. I have long been wanted to do this:

Now, I won't make THIS, but I'll play with the idea.

Whirlygig... Binding

The Whirlygig Quilt is finally getting finished. I made the binding weeks ago and sewed it to the quilt on Sunday. Then while watching the Super Bowl I started hand sewing the binding down.

A Spring of Teal, almost... DONE!!!

I am hoping to finish the binding and hanging sleeve on this quilt, finally.

Woo hoo! This is finally finished! The light isn't great, but I'll get a better picture later.

The quilting is lovely on this! Janet-Lee did her usual spectacular work.

Here is a picture of the flimsy so you can see the birds in more detail. As you can see, these birds are not identical.

Birds can be easily customized; they can be bigger, or fatter, or taller. If you want to make your own, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.