April 2015 | Go-Go Kim

sewing + social media + so much more

Monday, April 6, 2015

Speak to me!

Deciding to let the fabrics be my guide ( since I had no clue what I was doing) was the best course of action to take with this quilt.  I could not have had inspiration to start a quilt at a less opportune time but that is when inspiration seems to happen, when we least expect it and when we are not looking for it.

It has been about six weeks since I had really sat down to sew.  Maybe little bits here and there but nothing that required my full attention.  When sewing takes a backseat to life, I need to reacquaint myself with my machine ( she gets fussy when ignored), with how I work best, and what colors look best together up on the wall.  It takes time to do get into the groove.  I am now feeling groovy!  I let the fabrics speak to me and this is what they had to say...



The wall is filling up with some very beautiful blocks and the now eight year old ( HAPPY BIRTHDAY little man) is walking through every now and again to check on the progress of his quilt. I now have an on site supervisor and am feeling the pressure to have this done sometime soon!  The approval rating of the supervisor has gone up since taking this new direction ;o)  One more way I know this was the right thing to do.


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Wednesday, April 1, 2015

I Didn't Know THAT Would Happen!

My youngest is getting older.  He will be eight on Easter.  Only two more years and he will be in the double digits.  I sometimes wonder how it will be without a "little kid."  I have had them around for so long, it is odd to think about not having any.  He already does not allow me to hug him if people can see and will only hold my hand to cross the street only in the busiest of crossings.  He is growing up.  I am happy to see he is growing into a self-reliant and strong person.  As his Mom, I try not to hold too tight or too long.  He is doing what he should be doing.  I am loving every second of it.

I tucked him into bed two weeks ago ( tucking in is still allowed) and realized that his bed is full of quilts made when he was younger.  Two by me and one by Thomas Knauer.  They are all his and he knows it.  His absolute favorite is one I made from inexpensive Joann's flannel. A simple patchwork.  Bright and colorful. Just like him. He still asks for it when he does not feel well to cuddle and soothe himself. 

Now that he will be eight I thought he might like a quilt to take him into his tween years and maybe beyond.  It was to be a simple patchwork made from recycled garments like the Red Quilt.  But nothing over the top...just a simple patchwork...and then this block happened...


"I didn't know THAT would happen!"

That is a kind of joke in this house because when the older boys would be told NOT to do something and then they would do whatever it was anyway ( they are boys) when the "bad" then would happen they would always  say, "I didn't know that would happen!"

No one gave me that warning, so when I went to make the simple patchwork for the soon to be eight year old, I happily made my huge mess of to be blocks and then went in another direction. Not because I had a better idea, because honestly, I did not.

I made a few other log cabins with bits and pieces and had tried to stay only with basics.  My heart was pulling me in another direction. I was up early today starting a new center block and it happened! The thing that no one warned me about.  This may appear to be a simple nothing of a plus block but it is really so much more. The one strip of red is an odd random piece of the Red Quilt that I made last year. I have no idea how it decided to place itself in my path but it did.  I had made an effort not to make this a complicated process but I wanted to try something different.  This is different.  In Adam's quilt there will be a log cabin with a tiny red strip of something that means a lot to me. The quilt just became very personal. 



The other log cabins that I made last night seem drab and lifeless.  Each of the log cabins should represent each of the people in his family that love him which means I will be redoing some blocks to make them more personal.  I will ask the boys ( at 27 and almost 24 they are hardly boys) what colors they want and Katy wants hers to be a center of batik.  " I am a batik!"  she happily proclaimed :o)


This will be a great quilt and really, "I didn't know THAT would happen!"
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