Musings on Retirement

I just noticed it’s been almost 2 months since I last posted on my blog.  I have been busy quilting and doing other things, but nothing I felt needed blogging.  However, my life has changed and it will take time to digest the fact that I am no longer gainfully employed.

On June 22^nd, I retired from teaching forestry at a community college.  When I started my career, I had not ever thought I would teach, although some people early on thought I should.  I first worked as a forester: I fought fires, surveyed lines, cruised and marked timber, supervised logging sales.  All the normal stuff us foresters do.  However, the timber industry is a fickle one.  Recessions hit it harder than other professions and the growing anti-logging sentiment by the public didn’t help either.  (Just wait, however, when you run out of toilet paper…).  In 1979 I was working for a private company that was slowly circling the drain.  An adjunct teaching position came open and I took it to fill the gap until I could find something different.  However, I found that I loved teaching and the department liked me – so when the position came open as full time and tenured, I applied and got the job.  That was 33 years ago!  

But even the teaching environment has changed.  Students come less prepared for higher education, budgets have gotten continually tighter and decisions are made by administrators with no or extremely limited teaching experience, so that their decisions usually make the job harder without real benefits to students.  It was the growing feeling of frustration that told me it was time to go.  While I will miss the students and my colleagues, I will NOT miss the low morale and lousy atmosphere that has grown the past few years.

At 60, I am on the young side of retirement age, but there are some things I still want to do, that require a reasonably sound body.  My blog name is the Quilting Climber.  It’s the climbing part that I see as most perishable.  My hips and knees remind me of that every morning.  But it feeds my soul and provides the inspiration for my art quilts. My husband is 3 years older and we still have trips we want to take and climbs we want to complete. The weird part is that I have had summers off these past 33 years: our students are off doing their internships, so we do not offer summer courses.  It’s in the fall, when the teaching year starts again, that I will realize that I am truly gone. 

 However, I am already making adjustments.  I hope to finally not only get into shape, but I hope to quit the up and downs of it: I get into shape during summer, only to lose it slowly over the school year.  Even though we teach field classes that require a lot of bush travel, it’s just not the same.  I spent way too much time at my desk writing lesson plans, grading papers and dealing with the daily BS of administration.  I was a ski patroller and patrolling helped somewhat during winter, but I retired from that as well and have not skied nearly as much since (that will change, too!)  So now I am trying to build a regular workout schedule.  I also have a long list of things to do on the house and garden.  Of course, there’s all those quilts that need finishing or need to come out of my head and into fabric.

Where we camped last week - hope to have many more such mornings.  We climbed the mountain in the background.  Daughter of the Sun, Mission Mountains, Montana.  Photo by Fred Spicker July 26, 2012.

It is said that retirement is a stressful, life changing event akin to a death, marriage or similar.  While I am happy to finish that chapter in my life, I realize I am now much closer to the end than the beginning.  That’s the thing that has me pondering the most.  I intend to make the most of it!

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave  with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO what a ride!”

(Attributed to various people with various versions – I like this one best, apparently a Maxine cartoon.)

Crazy Geese

I am in several Flickr based quilting groups.  One of my favorites is Add-A-Border (the link button is on my links list).  It’s a low key group with no timelines.  You start by sending in a 6.5 inch (or 12.5 inch) block – either made specifically for this group or an orphan you’ve been wondering what to do with.  That block gets sent out to others who add a border.  Meanwhile Dustin, who is the “Bee Daddy”, sends you one or more blocks.  The sizes go 6.5 to 12.5 to 18.5 to 24.5 inches.  If you REALLY like a block you get, you can keep it.  Otherwise, at 24.5, the initiator has right of first refusal, otherwise it goes up for adoption by anyone who has completed a full set (24.5 inch) borders.   There is no time line on any of this.  Very time crunch friendly, cheap and none of the drama that seems to go with more formal bees.  No one is relying on you, so you can take a break whenever.  You are sewing from your stash and pay only for the postage (you send a SASE when you send in a block).  You have no idea what you are going to get and some of them have proven to be a challenge. Sometimes I know right away what to add, other times my reaction is more like WTF?  But with no time line, I can let a project stew a while until I get it figured out.  These blocks also give you permission to explore and experiment, as they as not part of someone’s project.  Each is as individual as the people who make it.  It's been great fun to see what people make of the starters I have sent in!

So it was with a block named Leftover Log Cabin. Adding more of what had been added would have been boring.  The more I looked at it, the more I thought about adding geese.  Then while cruising the web for ideas, I saw several instances of more wonky geese.  Since I am a fan of freezer paper piecing, I ended up designing a 2”by 6” panel of crazy geese plus a corner piece.  The corner piece has proven to be the biggest challenge.  Overall, I think the border came out okay and it was fun to do.  I have posted the PDF file of the patterns for your use.  Make sure to turn the scaling off, when you print the PDF!  Feel free to use this any way you like, including changing the size.  If you are interested in joining the group, do so.  There is no limit on the number of members.  The more the merrier!  I have no clue how Dustin keeps up with this all, but he does.  He rocks!

Crazy Geese Border added to Left Over Log Cabin.

Spiderweb Block

So I saw this cool looking block that one of my Flickr friends had made and which she blogged about. She had gotten the tutorial for the block from another site.

What I did not like is the use of a 12.5 inch square of fabric to use as the foundation.  That’s wasting some nice fabric, and if your star fabric is bright, the color might burn through the strips.  SO, I designed a paper piecing pattern for this block.  The problem with that is, most printers are limited in size, so my pattern will only make a 10.5 inch trimmed, 10 inch finished block.  Please note – you still have to add the ¼ inch seam allowance to the pattern when making the final trim.  I suggest you draw the cut lines in, so you won’t forget! 

It’s a lot like the block I blogged about last.  You start with the middle piece and then piece either side of it. 

Starting the quarter block.

  Trim each triangle with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  After making four, sew the triangles together on the short sides.

Finished Block

A few things to note: 

•  If you wanted the corners to have the same color way, then you would have to alternate on which side a particular color way goes on two of the blocks.  Realize, as you make more blocks and sew them together, it's those corner strip triangles that will form the spiderwebs!  See the mockup below (I only have made one block so far).

• You can make this go faster if you sew the strips to each side at a time, before pressing and getting the next strips ready.
• There’s nothing sacred about the lines for the strips – you can make as many or as few, as straight or as wonky as you want.  The only piece that has to be correct is the central one, labeled BG.
• As usual I used freezer paper, but any style of foundation piecing will work.

BTW, I recently discovered that there are wide format printers that will print on 13 inch wide and up to 44”long paper.  They cost no more than a regular printer.  I have already decided I am buying one.  Many are WiFi, so I can set it up in my studio, but print from any computer in the house.

Enjoy!

Strip Lattice Block

Inspiration for this block came from Elizabeth Hartman’s book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork. The quilt she shows in this book is called Valentine.  There are numerous differences, but I don’t claim what I am presenting here as original.

To start with, I prefer to freezer paper piece.  I used Word to create a 6.5 inch box, inside of which I put a 6 inch box.  I drew diagonal lines either side of the center diagonal.  This is the starting strip.  Hartman then has you adlib the remaining strips, but since this block is part of a virtual bee, I decided to preordain the strips and continued drawing them in – 5 strips on one side of the middle strip and four on the other. You can chose to have a few or as many as you want.  The template for this block is available as a PDF file via Google documents. I printed the template onto freezer paper. The following instructions are for using it to foundation piece each quarter.

To create the full block, you will make four quarter blocks. The middle strip will be the same color in all blocks (labeled BG on the template).  I chose black.

Since this is the tutorial for a blue themed bee, lay out five fabrics that range from light blue to dark blue and cut them into strips of the appropriate length and width to exceed the corresponding strip on the template by at least ¼ inch on each side. See picture below.

Cut the middle black strip long enough to go a little beyond both ends of the drawn strip and wide enough so that at least ¼  inch of the strip extends beyond the drawn sides.  Place the strip face down.  Place the template wax side down over the strip so you can see it beyond all the lines.  Iron it down to the strip. 

Fold back along the line on the side that has five strips and trim the fabric that shows to ¼ inch, if needed.  Take the lightest blue strip and put it right sides together with the black strip.  Place this under your sewing machine needle, with the folded back freezer paper on top.  Sew with the needle as close as you can to the fold, but do not sew through the paper. ( Next 2 pictures)

Fold the light blue strip out and iron on the right side (freezer paper is still folded back).  This ensures you have a crisp, tight seam.  Flip over to the wrong side, fold the template over the fabric and iron down. Next 2 pictures.

Now fold the template back along the second line.  Trim the exposed fabric to ¼ inch, as needed. 

 Take the second strip, right sides together with the strip just sewn on and once again sew right along the folded template edge.  Press the new strip out, flip over, iron down the template.  Fold back the third line.  Repeat until you have filled the template on the five strip side.

Now do the same thing with the four strip side, making sure you add the lightest value blue strip to the center and go darker as you proceed to the corner.  If for some reason one of your strips isn't quite right for the drawn strip, there's no problem changing the width of that strip - as long as you end up correctly at the corner.  I did that with one strip I had cut a bit too narrow.

When the template is full, trim just a bit outside the drawn ¼ seam allowance line.  Freezer paper does shrink and no matter carefully you remove it, the block will distort a little.   

After this trimming, carefully peel the freezer paper back, starting at one of the black strip corner and pulling parallel with the seam lines.  Starch and iron the heck out of the quarter block and then trim it to 6 ½ inches square.

Create all four quarters this way – the template can be reused, although it may not be as sticky and may require a bit more ironing.  I have used templates up to 8 times.

Once you have the four quarters completed, spend a little time arranging them to find the most pleasing one.  Sew the quarters into one block, matching the black strip as best as possible and the center seams, too.  Starch and press before trimming to 12 ½ inches.

Below is what two blocks together look like. They aren't sewn together yet - I would want the match the black lattice better possible to create a stained glass look. I am looking forward to seeing all the blocks together – I think this will look really cool!

My New Sewing Studio!

My husband and I are empty nesters who live in a 5 bedroom/2 full bath house that we love. One of the bedrooms upstairs is very large with lots of windows. In its most recent incarnation it has been our main guestroom with a sewing set up in one corner.  It has an en-suite bathroom that it shares with a smaller bedroom, that has actually been my husband’s office for quite a few years.  

Recently I started sewing with a group of 4 fun ladies.  We alternate meeting at each other’s houses.  When we met at mine, we used our dining and living rooms.  Poor hubby was relegated to the basement to wax skis.  The light is lousy and there’s really only enough room for two maybe three sewing machines.  Luckily most brought hand work.

So I decided to do a major rearrangement.  The bedroom set in the big room went into our daughter’s former room downstairs.  The full bed in that room went into this cozy room under the eaves upstairs that has been serving as a spare guestroom for years.  The twin from there is being given away. A chest of drawers from the big room and a small table that had been downstairs completes the little guest room.

 The big room now deserves to be called a studio!  I also found that all those rooms really needed a thorough cleaning, so that happened, too.  Lots of dust bunnies were killed.

I took the second recliner that was in the daughter’s room upstairs that along with its mate creates a sewing, reading nook in the new studio.  I swapped out an old kitchen table that was serving for folding laundry in the basement against a card table to create a second sewing table.  Both of my machines are set up and there’s lots of room for more machines. I also have a folding table that could be set up for more machines. I removed all the curtains (privacy is not really an issue) and have lots of natural light.  I need a few more lamps.

When you first walk in.

View from the reading nook

My design walls - the smaller one is the door to the bathroom.

The reading / hand sewing nook.

 Last evening was the first time sewing in this new space and I just love it.  Hope to have the group over soon – I think they will love it, too.