Pretty Squares

Imagine my surprise when I went to my PO Box today and opened a package that had packets of charm squares just for me. Tara Lynn Darr knows what I love--precut squares! Pretty ones! So exciting. And perfect for my small scrappy quilts and especially good for making my doll quilt club quilts. Tara said she enjoyed my recent post about Ugly Squares and couldn't resist sending me some squares. She's hosting a Charm Square exchange on her website.

Tara is so sweet. I buy bundles and charm squares from her whenever I run into her booth at a quilt show. Some of my best quilts are scrap quilts made with lots of different prints. Some of you have e-mailed me asking where to get "pretty" fabrics like I use in my quilts. If you're looking for some great reproduction fabrics, and you want to collect lots of "scraps" for making your small quilts, check out the charm packs and bundles at her store - Sew Unique Creations . They're great for making those small scrappy quilts with lots of little pieces. Tara, I forgot to ask, do I really have to send 300+ squares back to you now??

Pretty Squares

Everyone had an opinion about my recent Ugly Squares post:

• "You need some ugly colors to make the pretty ones stand out."
• "A fabric by itself may look horrendous, but when paired with another fabric, it  looks great."
• "Reading your post I can't seem to find the ugly fabrics . . ."
• "Ugly prints make the most interesting quilts."

Okay, it's like this. I'm sorry, I'm still not there yet. I know it's a matter of opinion, and sure they're not really ugly ugly, but even though some of them are blue, I still don't like them very well. And I know everyone says we're supposed to throw a couple of ugly squares into the mix but I like my pretty squares too much! I just can't deliberately buy "ugly prints." No way. If I get some ugly squares along with others in a charm pack, I'll use them in a quilt. Maybe. But I won't buy yardage I don't like. I'm not a convert yet.

Really  pretty squares

I've made a lot of really cute scrap quilts using pretty fabrics that I chose one by one because I loved the prints. This is the fun part!

So maybe sometime in the future I'll try making my quilts with more ugly fabrics, but for now I think I'm just going to stick to using my "pretty squares" to make my pretty quilts.

City Mouse, Country Mouse

Remember that children's book? I used to love to read it to my kids when they were little. Lately, that's what I feel like as I'm going back and forth between Chicago and the suburbs a couple of times a week. I love the city and even though it takes up a lot of my precious quilting time, I am thoroughly enjoying visiting while my daughter undergoes her Physical Therapy routine and Dr appts. Today is not going to be fun however--the parade and rally for the Chicago Blackhawks (Stanley Cup champs) is scheduled for late morning. That means several hours sitting in traffic as hordes of hockey fans descend upon the city . . . Go Hawks? 

It's fun wandering around, maybe because I don't have to live there anymore--I'm like a tourist in my own city. And I won't deny that there are a lot of scummy parts of Chicago, but there's also so much good. I found this cute little park across from the Newberry Library last week. A little knock-off of Central Park in NYC. Never even knew it existed.

I grew up in Chicago and after I had a job I got a small apartment a few blocks away from the lake. Chicago has an amazing lakefront and I always loved living there. My husband was from the suburbs and hated the city while we were dating--No parking! Noisy! Dirty! Crowded!--and when we got married and my job moved out to the suburbs we moved away too. I missed the lakefront but I was ready for a change.

When I lived there, I remember I couldn't stand the noise, the dirt, the crowds and the traffic myself sometimes and longed for a place with a garden and somewhere to stretch out a bit. Talk about stretching out . . . if I'd known I was going to become a quilter one day I would have bought a house with a few more rooms . . .

My peonies before they got ruined by the recent storms.

Now that I have my little house in the suburbs (with a large yard that keeps begging for lots of my time to turn it into a real garden. Be careful what you wish for  . . . ) I really miss the "energy" of the city. My son says that after college he's going to get an apartment there and my daughter wants to live there too eventually. Hope they'll both get decent jobs cuz I'm not paying their rent . . .

This is one of my favorite churches downtown, a beautiful old gothic nestled amidst the skyscrapers.

I always wanted to be married in this church, but by the time that happened, I was living somewhere else. THAT church had scaffolding up during our ceremony because 1 week earlier they decided that the chapel walls needed PAINTING and neglected to inform us until the rehearsal the night before! And they wouldn't take the scaffolding down just for us so the photographer had to work around it, LOL. I can laugh about it now.

My husband recently said "Wouldn't it be cool to sell the house when we retire and live in different areas of the country for a year at time?" I said "You mean like in an RV?" I don't know . . . Can I get cable TV in an RV?? Can I even take a bath in an RV? How would I quilt while the thing was moving? Maybe that's not what he meant but somehow I'm guessing living in a condo in the city may not be what he meant either.

At a business dinner for his company last year we talked to a couple who sold their house in the suburbs and bought a condominium in a high-rise building downtown to be closer to their grown kids. They were having the time of their lives going to museums and shows, dining at good restaurants, enjoying the lakefront and the freedom from home maintenance. I think if I could afford it I'd like to try that someday too. Just for a year though, because I know this city mouse would yearn for a little green space eventually.

What a Girl Wants

A cupboard full of antique quilts?

A new ipod because her son's ipod broke and--what a good mom--she gave him hers? (Actually I sold it to him to teach him a lesson--ipods don't grow on trees, LOL.)

                                      

 

A few more puppies?

What does a girl want? This girl just wants to feel better and is tired of attending physical therapy to help relieve her pain from herniated discs. Helping take care of her is mostly what keeps me from having  a lot of free time to sew lately. Poor baby. Keep a good thought. . . She just wants to feel better and be able to do things without her back hurting.

She'd take a few more puppies in a minute though . . . Amazing how puppies can always make you feel better.

What does a girl want? This little puppy girl just wants to play ALL the TIME and have mommy's undivided attention!

A playful run in the backyard every five minutes or so . . .

What does a girl want? This old girl in particular just wants more time to sew and play around with fabric and blocks and finish some more doll quilts just for fun.

Plus more time to work on her Dear Jane blocks.

I've been feeling a little under the weather lately. Nothing serious, just a bug. What else does a girl want? A little time to get away for a few days would be nice. Nothing fancy, just someplace remote, near a beach perhaps. (A husband who is able to take time off from work is part of this deal.)

 

What else does a girl want? More Barbies of course! This one should be arriving in the mail soon . . .

Speaking of the mail, I apologize for the delay in sending out the first Doll Quilt Club  pattern to those of you who are patiently waiting. Last week was horrendously busy with family things and Dr and Vet appointments and I just wasn't feeling great so I slowed down a bit. I created a little something extra for the club which had to be printed up as well. But you'll be happy to know that, as of this afternoon, all the mailing labels are done and the envelopes stuffed. I'll be up early tomorrow to take them to the Post Office (keep a good thought again) and then you'll have them in hand this week. So no, I did not leave town and abscond with your money--they're almost on their way. Those of you who ordered patterns and books as well as the club--thanks for waiting. I am sending those items in the same package. International orders will have to wait a little bit longer but still--better late than never. 

Ugly Squares

Poor me. I haven't had time to visit a quilt shop to buy fabric for awhile since I made the quilts from my book. I really really don't NEED any more fabric right now, you should see my baskets of leftovers. The projects I'm making now for the new Doll Quilt Club will all mostly be made from my scraps or fabric I already have. I did stock up on quite a few bundles and fat quarters at the Quilt Festival in Chicago in April and have barely touched those yet. Still, I have to admit I was pretty restrained.

I so loved some of the antique quilts on display and bought some prints that I thought would look nice when I reproduced them all . . . Hah! In another 50 years maybe. Unless I reproduce them in doll quilt form. My habit is to look closely at my favorite antique quilts and try to pick out the fabrics in them I love and then go find similar ones of my own. Ignore the rest. Do you do this too?

Side note: I don't think I ever showed you this bag from that event. Many of you that were there probably bought one too. I don't usually buy the bags--I already have so many that I bring my own--but this one was so vibrant and striking that I had to have it.

Anyway, whenever I go to a large show I always see a couple of vendors selling pre-cut squares and I can never resist. I'm lazy, I love pre-cut anything. And most of time the packages are terrific. These wonderful pre-cut 2 1/2" pink and blue reproduction squares will be great for making my scrappy little quilts.

But every year I also pick up a couple of pre-cut packets at a certain different booth just because I think they'll come in handy for making scrap quilts. And every year I forget that, aside from the pretty one on the top and the pretty one on the bottom, most of the other squares are UGLY prints. I always fall for it.

I opened the package with "Assorted Civil War Reproduction Squares" already and so can't remember which square was on top to fool me so I could show you. Most of them are not fabrics I've ever seen in shops. I feel a little guilty saying this, but I'm sorry, these are not prints I would choose on my own.  Maybe because I just am not that fond of brown and green.
  

When I buy fabric, I have to love it, and that's probably why I gravitate toward blue and pink and red reproduction prints. There were a LOT of brown prints in the package that I would never have bought alone. Some of them were BIG prints. Some of these other prints are okay--but I would never have bought a yard of any of them.

So the truth may be--and don't think I don't know this--that maybe I just don't like to actually reproduce  typical antique quilts from the Civil War era with so many of their madders and browns, I just reproduce the parts of them I love, and so they're not really authentic. Is that so bad? I've always said I'm INSPIRED by them. And then I throw in my blues and pinks and reds.

What I decided to do was, instead of being disappointed with the squares I bought, take them all in stride and pull out some of my own "lovely" reproduction squares and just mix them up with the "ugly" ones. I started to sew half-square triangles. Paired an ugly one with one that wasn't so ugly. And then started making a simple little scrappy triangles quilt.

These are my lovely prints! NOT ugly.

This is a scrappy triangles doll quilt I made years ago. Before I knew you were supposed to match your seams . . . LOL, so don't look too closely. The point is, I chose and LOVE each of the prints in this quilt. If I make one with  prints I really DON'T love and didn't choose, will it still turn out ok? Will I like it?

 

If you look at antique quilts, many of the really beautiful ones were also sewn with "ugly squares." We're really spoiled today. Women from long ago didn't have the choices we have, they had to make do with what they had. Or maybe they truly loved those prints and you do too and I'm the oddball here.

                            

 I LOVE this antique quilt. Look at all the UGLY prints:

I think I'm definitely starting to think outside of my box a bit. And this may be the lesson I need to learn: like babies and puppies, THERE ARE NO UGLY PRINTS! I really think my ugly squares and my chosen squares will all come together nicely and make a beautiful scrappy quilt in the end.  How's that for making do?

Still Playing with Dolls

I had a few dolls that I loved growing up in the 1950s--Chatty Cathy and Barbie were two of my favorites. I still have both of them, even though my mom gave away my Barbie dolls (plus suitcase AND wardrobe, can you imagine?) to my nieces when I was in college. I didn't really care at the time, but one day when I was a little older and visiting my sister's home I saw one of MY precious Barbies and her clothes strewn all over the playroom floor. The girls obviously didn't care about them because they were considered "old"-- from 1960 or so--and not like the cool "Malibu" Barbies. I quickly got a bag and threw whatever I could find that used to be mine into it and right then and there "reclaimed" my childhood. I was able to salvage one good blonde bubblecut Barbie and a few outfits. So glad I did. After my daughter turned 3 or so I would occasionally bring out my dolls and show her what mommy played with when she was little. Ponytail Barbie, my first, was lost forever.

Barbie turned 50 (!) last year and I was feeling nostalgic so I treated myself--I bought an old Barbie catalog and the suitcase I used to have from eBay (Oh, the memories!). 

Every now and then I try to see if I can find something else to add to my growing collection while I'm browsing the flea markets or antique malls. Buying them on eBay can get expensive. My daughter gets a really big kick out of this--I guess it's fun to see her "old" mom excited about toys and it gives her a glimpse into my own childhood.

Do you know that the original dolls are so collectible now that they can go for hundreds on eBay?? Don't laugh but I've been on a mission to find all of the outfits and accessories I had as a child and replace the ones that are missing. I'm also tempted to buy some I really really wanted but couldn't afford back then. My allowance in 1960: maybe 50 cents a week? Some of that went toward necessities--penny candy, gum, or comic books, so I had to wait for birthdays or Christmas to acquire more outfits.  Between me and Audrey McGee, my best friend when I was nine, we had just about every Barbie outfit Mattel ever sold.

Apparently I'm not alone in this nostalgic Barbie collecting business, because the prices for these things have become ridiculous, through the roof. All the antiques dealers know what Baby Boomers will pay for the dolls and their clothing, so they get to the flea markets first and buy up all the good stuff and then mark it up 500%. But sometimes you can get lucky and the flea market is fun for stuff like that--I found 2 Barbie outfits in not-bad condition for $5.00 each last summer. That keeps me going.

I'm really not into antique dolls much, just Barbies, and I'll bet that surprises some of you, considering my penchant for antique quilts. Quilts yes, dolls not so much. There are always quite a few old dolls at the flea market. They're fun to look at but I don't want to buy any.

I guess I never cared much for the real antique ones  because they weren't from my own childhood; I didn't play with them and so there aren't any memories attached. The dolls on the covers of my books are not mine--they were all just props my publisher used and I have no real attachment to them either, although I do love the cloth dolls designed by Gail Wilson in my first two books and have one myself that was given to me. I couldn't offer up my own dolls for props in my books--you can't use Barbie with antique-looking quilts, can you? She's much too cool for that. And, besides, look at that eyeliner--imagine what that would to do a quilt, LOL.

I think we should collect what we love and what makes us feel good and captures our hearts. As far as dolls go, for me that was always Barbie, the original Barbie. But she came under a lot of criticism after the '60s--that she was way too sexy for little girls to play with and a poor role model. I never really bought into the idea that playing with her somehow damaged my self-esteem, forced me to grow up too fast or caused me to have unrealistic "body" issues when I grew up. Honestly, my self esteem never came from dolls and anyway, who really wanted to look like her? Yikes! Playing with Barbie was just plain fun and it was MAKE BELIEVE. Like Harry Potter, she's not REAL, people. And it was fun because I coveted her clothes--they were so meticulously designed. Classy and sophisticated, with real working zippers and tiny accessories.

I read that Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, said she thought that girls projected themselves into their imaginary play with dolls. When they play, little girls often want to be older girls or grown up. They could project who they wanted to be someday onto the adult dolls they played with. So, in some ways, Barbie may have actually helped girls begin practicing other roles, besides being a mother, early on. Barbie could do anything and she may have empowered girls to travel or work at a time when the only role available to them may have been the role of mother, for instance, when they played with baby dolls in the '50s. Not that there was anything wrong with wanting to be a mother. I wanted to be a mother too. With great clothes! It's just nice to see girls have choices.

Barbie the career girl

Barbie the astronaut

Mostly, I just craved her contemporary wardrobe and had a lot of fun collecting the clothes and accessories. My older sisters wore "cool" clothes and makeup and I wanted to be like my sisters when I grew up. They did NOT look like Barbie, by the way.

So yeah, I was a Barbie girl in 1960 and I'm not embarrassed to admit it. And now that I think about it, Barbie probably did affect my self esteem, but in a good way--I learned to have a fashion sense at an early age and even now I know a good outfit when I see one.