Moving, a Journey

I’ve started walking around the hotel parking lot while listening to Pokey Bolton’s Instagram conversations with quilting peeps. Hotel parking lot you say? Why yes. The physical move from NY to TX is about 1/2 complete. We arrived in Texas on Thursday evening after four days on the road. While at one hotel I’d made arrangements for our next hotel planning to drive somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 miles each day. My guy and I communicated by walkie talkies making roadside stops easier. Wearing masks when we had to go into any building. Our belongings are in storage, we are in a long term hotel until the details of our old and new home is worked out. We are essentially staying put until we’re able to move about freely.

The details for the sale of our house are a bit weird at the moment however they will be worked out. Once we have our new home and can move in, I’m looking forward to setting up a new quilting space. While we wait for the weirdness to settle we get to window shop for houses, look for new quilt shops, and look forward to meeting some really cool quilters who live in this area.

Once I have my machine set up I’m plan to start the quilted block of the month/week back up. I am considering tweaking the original concept using both a drawn-on-fabric block and a pieced block. The focus will be the machine stitching with a variety of thread weight and color rather than the piecing. When piecing I use either a 60 weight, or 80 weight cotton or polyester thread paired with a size 70/10 Microtex needle. The iron is set to a medium heat, and I use a spritzer or mister rather than water in the iron. Check out this post for more info on the water/iron sitch.

I can assure you that not being able to sew and quilt right now is a bit challenging. I have a 108” x 108” black batik from Sew Batik that is calling my name. Whispering sweetly in my ear, “quilt me! quilt me!” And oh do I have an idea to quilt this delightful beauty. I’m going to do a bit of piecing for the backing to use of some fabric that’s been marinating in my stash for some time. I am going to need to get batting, and am hoping to find a Quilters Select dealer nearby who has it or who will get it for me. Gotta support them local quilt shops.

Along with listening to Pokey Bolton I’ve watched new-to-me episodes of The Quilt Show and more recently the Quilting Daily Quilt & Tell Podcast with Tracy Mooney, Lori Baker and Ginger Sheehy Tatic. The two most recent are with Catherine Redford and Debby Brown, and Alex Anderson. Tracy, Lori and Ginger all bring something unique to the party, and make quilting a lot more fun. I learn something new in each podcast, and there’s always something new from Alex Anderson, even if it’s the simple reminder to be gracious and grateful. Those weren’t her words exactly, so give the interview a listen.

In an upcoming blog post I’ll be sharing recent updates from Quilts, Inc regarding upcoming shows, so please stay tuned. If all goes well I’ll pair this with an interview I did with Alex Anderson on the Threads of Success at Fall Market.

This moving is something of a physical, spiritual, and personal journey. The physical move is on hold, the spiritual and personal continue. These are a gift to me. I am very grateful to have friends who have offered me support through this. Of course there is never ending gratitude for my Sweetie, for our deeper conversations we’ve had over the last few weeks, for his physical presence and the intimacy of our souls together. We’re quilters, we exemplify community, women (for the most part) getting together, working together, supporting one another. We long for the companionship of our shared love for the uniqueness, the utility, the passion of our love for others. If there is anything about this move, this moment in our shared history it is of the necessity of community, of communication, of compassion. Quilters let us imagine building space to accommodate the more of who we are, and how the rest of the quilting community complements our shared passion. We complement one another like purple and yellow-green.

Happy Quilting,
Teri