If I Sew...................It Will Grow!

       Twenty or so years ago I owned a small quilt shop in Fairmont, W.Va.  The shop title was a bit unique:  "Uncle Bertie's Quilt Shop".  You might ask where on earth did that come from?  The answer is simple.  I wanted to name the shop after my grandmother whose name was Bertie.  For some very strange reason and you'd have to know them to understand but my kids called her Uncle Bertie and the name stuck.  So that was the shop name.  Believe me, wholesalers never got my orders mixed up with another shop. In many respects, there was only one Uncle Bertie.
        When I think about it now, it amazes me how much I didn't know about quilting back then and all that I've learned since.  For instance, at that time you always used muslin for the backing of your quilt.  Most people handquilted.  I truly believed that machine quilting was a mortal sin for which I'd go to purgatory, if not hell,  and when the quilt wasn't done by hand, well then it wasn't truly a quilt.  There are lots of great "shop memories".  While I worked at the local hospital, my "quilt pox" became contagious and I was able to teach handquilting to countless nurses and hospital staff.  When a Ronald McDonald House opened near us, we were able to donate 23 twin size quilts.  I even got to meet Ronald McDonald!
        Part of having a quilt shop also meant making quilted items to sell and doing craft shows.  A few years ago I started making small quilted items for gifts for friends and co-workers.  I think we all have people in our lives that we'd like to give just a little something.  This year when I gave a friend a card wallet for her birthday she said those ominous words, "You could sell these.  They're great!"  That minute a light bulb came on in my head and the wheels started turning.  I certainly have a stash of fabric in my sewing room.  There are all those scraps that I refuse to throw away but what are you going to do with a 10" x 12" scrap? I'm hoping that opening a shop on Etsy.com is the answer.  Afterall if you use all your stash, the result is that now you get to buy more fabric.  This time the shop is not Uncle Bertie's.  When you think about it, how often would Uncle Bertie trigger an internet search - probably not many.  This time it is "Patchwork By Paula".  Scary, but this time the title actually makes sense.  I'm stocking it  right now with those small quilted items that I made for friends and co-workers.  See the pictures below of coasters, book covers, card wallets, and snap purses:

         As time permits, I'll include other items such as covers for electronic readers, baby quilts, wall hangings, etc. I hope you'll come and take a look by going to etsy.com/shop/patchworkbypaula. It's my new adventure and "As I Sew......It Will Grow". Meanwhile I'll be doing what I love best, sewing and quilting. The more scraps I use the sooner I get to buy more fabric and that is incentive all on its own. 

Peace to all,
Paula

You can sew anything...........right?

As I said at the very beginning - I AM A QUILTER!  That does not mean that I'm a seamstress.   As insane as it sounds, I take large pieces of fabric, cut them into smaller pieces and sew them back together.  I'm not sure if it's the concept that confuses the average person or if they only hear the word "SEW".  They roll all that around in their head a few seconds and then come back with "You can sew anything, right?"

It started about twenty years ago when my oldest granddaughter was convinced MeMom could sew anything.  She would bring me a broken plastic toy and ask me to sew it.  Unfortunately, she never outgrew that belief.  She is now a fashion major in college.  One weekend last year she came home and announced we were designing and making a 1960's outfit for a barbie doll.  "Huh?????????????  I don't sew clothes, remember?"  Obviously, she had amnesia.  This outfit was to have bell bottom pants and a button up blouse with flared sleeves.  I asked if she realized that the bodice on this blouse might be 3/4 inch long and it was supposed to button up?????????  Heaven help me!  That weekend I figured out how to fake a button closure on a microscopic blouse and my granddaughter was introduced to a sewing machine.  "We" made an A.  As far as I'm concerned, that barbie outfit ought to be in a glass trophy case and preserved forever.

My "sewing" adventure continues.  Have I mentioned that I'm a quilter and don't like to sew?  A good friend at work has a great dane puppy.  One morning a few weeks ago she showed me a picture of a great dane in a ballerina Halloween costume and says, "You can make one of these, right?" "She can't be the only dog at Day Care without a costume".  This would have been a good time to politely back out of her office and forget we had this conversation.  Instead I heard myself saying, "Sure, what's her measurements?"  (Where is a great dane's waist, anyway?)  It must have been one of those senior moments people talk about.  Off I went to the fabric store to buy net and something frilly.  Had I ever made a tutu?  Nope, I'm a quilter afterall.

 Sophie was not thrilled with wearing her costume and refuses to go to ballet class but my friend and I had a lot of fun making sure she was appropriately dressed for Halloween.

I'm still not convinced I can sew everything but my family and friends are trying to change that.

Peace to all,

Paula

Where do I start?

Where does one begin a blog?  Heaven only knows, but here goes.  As I've said in my profile, I wear just a few hats.  The main one that I will talk about here is quilting.  Of course, like any normal grandmother,  I'll have to throw in a few comments now and then about my wonderful grandchildren.

When did the quilting portion of my life begin?  My first memories of quilting are of playing underneath my own grandmother's quilting frame in the small town of Fairview, W.Va.  It was my tent, my hiding place, and where my imagination could soar.  The other memory I have of quilting is meeting my grandmother after school on Mondays, where she and her friends would have their quilting bees.  They quilted for people and their profits (?) went to a service organization that they belonged to.  The word profit is used very loosely.  As best I remember, they charged 50 cents per spool of thread they used.  I also remember my grandmother paying someone else to mark the quilting lines in her own quilts.  Everytime I mark the quilting lines in a quilt top I think, "If only there was someone I could pay to do this!"

Unfortunately, my grandmother didn't teach me to quilt.  An expression she used often when it came to sewing, cooking, etc. was "Get away, I can do it while you're getting ready!"  She wasn't being mean;  she was just a perfectionist.  She had a simpler way of introducing me to sewing:  "I signed you up for the 4-H Club.  You're taking sewing." All righty then!  The first project was a linen dish towel, finding the straight of the grain by pulling a thread clear through the fabric and then hemming it by hand.  A good question to ask after that experience would be why on earth would I want  to sew?  The answer is simple.  Sewing and quilting give me peace.  When one of the hats you wear in life is being a psychiatric nurse, peace is a valued commodity.

Years after Grandma went to heaven, I got it in my head to make my daughter a quilt before she went away to school.  The resources I had were my thimble, a little knowledge of how to use a sewing machine and a book entitled "Lap Quilting" by Georgia Bonesteel.  One of the major things I didn't know was the difference between 100% cotton and a polyester blend.  Oh well, why sweat the small stuff?  Yipes!

Enough said for my first blog entry.  Right now I need to go to my sewing machine and for a little while forget those fun meetings that happened at work today and what's in store for me tomorrow.  All I need to concentrate on is completing the eleven Snap It Purses that I cut the pieces for last night not to mention finishing a Halloween tutu costume for a friend's great dane.  Tip of the Day:  Do NOT tell your friends you can sew :)

Peace to All,
Paula