Drunkard's Path

                You may wonder what I’m blogging about with a title like “Drunkard’s Path.” But quilters know.

            Drunkard’s Path is the name of one of hundreds of quilt blocks and in case you’re not a quilter, here are some basics. Think of a quilt as fabric art composed of a designed top layer, inner batting and back layer. “Pictorial” quilts create pictures when all the little pieces are sewn together. The small quilt in the photo is a “crazy quilt” hosting all sorts of shapes and do- dads (thoughtfully) tossed together in a kind of freewheeling symphony of fabric. I did this one as a quilt challenge to use just three colors and was given black, red and white to work with.

            More “traditional” quilts use large square segments called “blocks,” like Drunkard’s Path, and a pattern emerges when the blocks are sewn together. Just change the direction of the blocks as they are placed in the quilt or switch out the lighter and darker hues, and a totally different quilt would appear! Mix and match more than one block and another quilt is born. Add sashing (1 to 2 inch strips of different fabric) between the blocks and…well, you get the idea.

Even if you’re not interested in quilting and have an allergy to sewing needles, I invite you to follow this link to Marcia Hohn’s Quilter’s Cache (www.quilterscache.com) and on the drop down menu click on “quilt blocks galore –free quilt block patterns.” Scroll down and each time you click on a page number, more blocks appear with a different old American tune. Click on any block you fancy to get the sewing directions for it. Sometimes I just admire and listen as I go from page to page. If the quilting bug just bit you, Marcia’s site also offers a lesson section.

The quilting bug took a chunk out of me when I went to a quilt show and found myself surrounded by the most beautiful, inventive, art gallery I could ever have imagined. I just have to do this, I decided and then, wonder of wonders! I discovered quilting is NOT that difficult. It only looks that way.

Not able to draw to save my life, but in love with color and design, I wander through fabric stores and see soft art rather than cloth. Creating or following a pattern, matching and selecting fabrics is so absorbing I have actually forgotten to stop for lunch. (I was born underweight and am hard wired to continue to correct the problem that is long gone.) At first, I created the entire quilt by hand and found it to be just as relaxing as if I were in the lotus position murmuring “uhmmmmmmmm.” Since then, I usually use my sewing machine, or as my daughter-in-law-the -purist says, I’ve “gone to the dark side.” Still, I occasionally lose myself in hand piecing and quilting.

Quilts are versatile. They keep you warm; they are also wall art, table runners, placemats, lap rugs.  (I made my first dog his own quilt.)  In fact, their value increases as families pass then down through the generations. Best quilts are made of 100% cotton and please don’t wash them unless absolutely necessary and then, very carefully. They can be literally constructed with the fabric of your life. You could use cloth from your children’s or grandmother’s wardrobe. Some people make quilts from assorted tee-shirts that have meaning to them.

True quilters grow a “stash” of assorted fabrics.  This way we quilters are always armed with sufficient fabric to sew at the drop of a rotary cutter!

            Quilts don’t need to be perfect. There’s a tradition that every quilt should have a mistake in it.  Some of my neatest work is the result of a blooper that forced me to add a creative “correction.”

            Oh, go on, try it. What do you have to lose?

AARP and Company

        

It was my mother’s birthday and I was about twelve, when my grandmother said, “Haven’t you noticed you mother’s been celebrating her 39^th birthday for the last five years?” When I later mentioned to the same grandmother that she was old, her response surprised me. She was walking through the side door when she turned and smiled at her impertinent granddaughter and answered, “But I don’t feel old inside.” 

She died at age 93 and I can honestly say she never did grow old. She aged, of course, but she never got “old.” Every day this woman rose at 6 a.m. and had her home gleaming by 11 a.m. I once overheard her telling my mother, “I had such trouble getting down the stairs today, but felt better after scrubbing the kitchen floor.”

As for my mother, let’s just say it was worth your life to offer her a “senior discount.”

My heritage may account for the difficulty I have with the word “retire.” (Nor can I bring myself to join the American Association of Retired Persons, as honorable and helpful as that organization may be. They have enough members anyway.)

According to my handy dandy dictionary, the word  “retire” means: 1) withdrawn from business or public life (what? As in holed up in a room somewhere and never more interacting with society?)  2) withdrawn; secluded (well I guess that’s what is meant by “ retire”!)

“Withdrawn” means retiring (seems to come full circle, doesn’t it); shy; emotionally unresponsive. “Withdraw” means 1) to take back or away; remove 2) to recall or retract 3) to remove oneself from active participation.

Based on those definitions when a new acquaintance asks me what I “do” I sure as heck am not going to say that I’m retired! I’ve merely changed my focus. I’m moving on. There’s a world of experiences waiting for me.

            Some people work all their lives and never develop an interest or hobby. Life is busy enough working eight or more hours five days a week, caring for home, children and various friends. Then suddenly those eight hours are gone; the kids are grown; there’s only so much the house needs and many friends have moved or sadly passed on. Time hangs heavy and television becomes a lonely wasteland. How to fill those long hours from sunrise to sunset becomes a challenge.

            Instead, now is the time to: learn to do woodworking, garden your heart out, take up quilting, photography, music lessons, join a book club, volunteer your services, join Toastmasters and master the art of public speaking even if there is no public to speak to. Embarrass your kids more than ever before!  It’s time to research that esoteric subject you never had time for and feed your inner nerd.

 You don’t have to excel at any of this. Excelling was for the dog- eat- dog work place. You’re free of that. Now, “good enough” is just fine and “just because “is reason aplenty.  There’s a well earned freedom now. Set the alarm early; you’re on YOUR time finally. Fill the day with new work, new people, new causes, and new ways to find and create beauty. Follow your heart, your soul, your whimsy. But for the love of heaven, don’t retire!