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Be sure there are more quirks, but here are the ones I can think of at the moment... don't judge me...
1. I want to sneak into my sister's house and steal a quilt. Our grandmother left her a hand pieced scrappy double wedding ring top that I hand quilted for her right after I learned to make quilts. It had a thick batting and was backed with a sheet granny left to be used. It was hard hard hard to do. It lives in a plastic bag in sister's closet.
2. I can't sew on a machine if I'm wearing shoes
3.Sometimes I cut across the fabric kind of under my ruler-holding arm, because I am too lazy to move and reset the fabric. It's a terrible practice and I suspect many of us do it.
4. I keep things I know I will likely never use ever. I won't give them up. Like patterns I've bought or been given, I know it's highly doubtful that I'll make that pieced watermelon table runner from a pattern but I keep it, "just in case" You want to be here for the big sale when I go to the big studio in the sky, may it be after I'm a hundred as I have a lot of quilts to make.
5. I think about quilting almost all the time. I have thousands of ideas to make. I see an object and wonder how I can make it in fabric. I see a colored sky and think of how I can paint it. I fear I might look like I'm listening sometimes and be thinking about my art.
6. I buy books on quilting but usually don't read them. But I keep them. All.
7. I can't turn down a challenge. I love to enter challenges as they are stimulating and fun.
8. I prewash everything even scraps of fabric people give me. I put those in little mesh bags, wash on hot, dry, and then sort. into color boxes. I don't find it time consuming, I'm handling fabric. I am so sensitive to the chemicals used in production that I have trouble teaching classes now when students bring unwashed fabric, then press it the chemicals are released and I get a sinus headache. This developed over the years folks.
9. I once sliced off the edge of my pointer finger with a rotary cutter (I was cutting straight that time!!) because I was in a hurry and the blade jumped the ruler. It bled for days. A Mennonite woman at a fabric store said she did the same thing a month earlier, and just put some bleach on it. !!! I only sewed over the edge of a finger once on the machine, and I've been sewing on a machine since I was about 7. It hurt.
10. I use the tv or cd's to keep part of my brain, the part I think of as a sensor, busy while I work. The noise plays in the background while I happily make decisions and sew. Sometimes a whole movie plays out and I don't remember any of it. Does that mean I'm going downhill? Lately I don't need the distraction, just silence.
Actually I can be sewing along happily and when DH comes home and into the studio with the dog, I start making stupid mistakes instantly.
That's 10, that's me, LeeAnna obsessed with quilt making
I've done number nine. Lets leave it at that. Thanks for sharing. This little exercise has really let me see that times are changing and so is quilting. Hard and fast rules have made way for sense and ease of work and not just in my sewing studio. Thanks for sharing your secrets.
ReplyDeleteI really identify with number 5. My brain just keeps on creating more quilts than I will ever make! And that's fine with me!
ReplyDeleteFun :) And I'm also guilty of #4, although it didn't make my list!
ReplyDeleteLOL! I love reading these lists and I think my favorite is #4. It certainly made my laugh to think of it as the big studio in the sky. And #3, I am not sure but I think I have been doing this lately
ReplyDeleteWhen I quilt, I THINK about the work - everything I can pull from my mind about how I do what I do. Then, I write or record notes. Notes of tips, sketches of ideas, photos of work in progress. Then, I write a course for QuiltEd Online! I learned a long time ago to take notes whenever I attend a course presented by another teacher, and that practice has served me well over the years.
ReplyDeleteGuilty - though?! Probably that I have thrown away work that I should have kept, merely because it defeated me at the moment. It would have been better to accumulate some UFOs instead of throwing a strop and pitching the work into the trash!
LeeAnna, don't steal that quilt in your sister's house! Tactfully point out that she is not using it, that it breaks your heart to see it mistreated, that you did the work on it, and that you would like to have it. Simply ask her for it - she might surprise you and give it to you!! ;-)
I endorse what Dena said about getting that quilt out of its plastic bag in your sister's house! It doesn't hurt to ask! I totally relate to #4, too. I can sew on a machine with bare feet, but it's not fun and I worry about pins falling into my sensitive footsies! Thanks for the laughs!
ReplyDeleteI was taught to sew barefoot so that you feel if the pedal is getting over-heated! I can, sadly, identify with #9, and also #5 - constant quilt stream-of-consciousness, though I'm hoping no one's noticed yet.
ReplyDelete#5 there will not be enough time in this life to make up all the planned quilts! #9 sliced off the side of my finger and cut my leg - don't ask.
ReplyDelete"the big studio in the sky" :) I like that. I think you should definitely ask your sister for that quilt. I can't imagine why she wouldn't give it to you if she just keeps it stored away. Do you have anything of your grandmother's that you might be able to exchange for it?
ReplyDeleteYou hand quilted it and it ended up at your sister's house!? That wouldn't be stealing; it would be reclaiming. Ask her for it (assuming she is a reasonable sister.)
ReplyDeleteI am a pre-washer too. I just hang everything out on the washing line in the hot Australian sun and it is dry in no time.
Number 9 - ouch!
I definitely can't sew with shoes on- the pedal feels all wrong!
ReplyDeleteI completely understand you wanting to steal that quilt. My mother-in-law has an antique quilt made by my father-in-law's grandmother. It is folded up and stored in the closet. Would she even notice it was missing? ;)
ReplyDelete#10...Audio books are my companions while sewing.
ReplyDeletethis is a fun post to read. you are a funny person, you know?
ReplyDeleteI also prewash all my fabrics, I don´t want any shrinking to happen if I use washed and unwashed fabrics at the same time.
KATRIN W.
It sounds like a lot of us sew barefooted or with socks!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started using the rotary cutter, I actually nicked my belly because I was slicing fabrics in the wrong direction! (towards me instead of away from me). I also have nicked my face because I didn't put down the cutter before scratching an itch! Those were the days I learned valuable lessons on my own.
Strangely enough, I never sliced my finger cutting fabrics. However, I have sliced my finger with a dull cutter blade cutting scrapbook papers! I had to tell myself that just because it is a different medium, it doesn't mean safety still is not important. LOL. :-)
There are not very many Lee Ann on the webs or variations on that name. I'm happy to meet another! LeeAnna is beautiful! I don't think I ever seen that spelling variation. Liana, yes. LeeAnna, no. I am very pleased to have met you.
~Lee Ann