When Facebook breaks your heart, make wine.

June 17, 2015June 30, 201513 Comments

I LEARNED this weekend that Facebook can break your heart.

My aunt’s daughter (my first cousin) got married, and neither my sister nor I was invited to the wedding. Seeing the photos of my other family members at the wedding made me distraught.

My mother and her two sisters all died from breast cancer. My aunt, SJ, was a sweet person. I could write a long story about her, our adventures together, and her children.

I thought I had a relationship with her daughter. Facebook gave me the false sense that I was involved in her life. I was a part of her virtual life, not her real one.

When I saw the photos on Facebook of her wedding, all I could do was cry — for hours. The last time I cried like this, I was at a funeral. I wasn’t happy for her at all. I couldn’t sleep. You never know when something is going to happen in your life that changes you and how you feel about the way you interact with your family and other people. This was that moment.

I ALSO FELT guilty. My mother would not have allowed this to happen.

I didn’t know what to do. I considered closing my Facebook account because I didn’t ever want to feel this way again. Wasn’t ignorance so much better?

I didn’t close my account because I’m participating in the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop, and we have a group on Facebook. Our hive queen, Terri Ann, explained to me that I could make my Facebook “private.” I didn’t know this. That’s what I did or at least it’s mostly private. Here’s a youtube video on how to do that.

I discovered Facebook and the overload of posts from acquiesces had weighed me down. I won’t be able to restore my relationship with my cousin, or the rest of my mother’s family, or at least I don’t think I will be able to at this point. Even though I’m an attorney, I wither when confronted by members of my family. It’s just better to hide, and Facebook allowed me to do that. And, I’m hiding again with my privacy changes. (I need therapy).

So I’m going to take my sour grapes and make wine — somehow. I just don’t know how. I’d love some wisdom from the crowd.

Heartbroken,

Wanda

Pause

May 18, 2015June 30, 201510 Comments

Take a moment to pause.

It’s hard for me to pause. I’m in a hurry to get things done and the faster the better. But, I slow down when I hand quilt. The news is that quilters are slowing down.

Why?

Quilting Daily says it’s because the quilting frenzy of tools and fabric and social media posts are stressing us out.

One of my Book Bee participants (where we’re exploring Savor Each Stitch: Studio Quilting with Mindful Design ) sent me the above post. In it, the author writes:

Mindful creating, or paying close attention to what you’re doing. how you are doing it, and the materials you’re using, can help you regain the “Zen” of your favorite pastime. Not to mention how much better your results will be.

The author cites Mark Lipinski’s Slow Stitching Movement as an example of this approach. When I explored his blog, it was overwhelming. I couldn’t decide where to go first, so I just quit looking. That’s a good place to start. Just stop looking!

And, for my exploration of the chapter in Savor Each Stich, “Contrast,” I’m hand quilting my quilt. (featured photo above)

I love hand quilting. Over the last year I’ve made more than 3 million stitches on my machine trying to improve my free motion quilting. It worked. I got a lot done, but it’s time to pause and take a break from that. I’m going to take my time and not stress about my “to do list.” I’m going to pause and savor each stitch.

Pausing,

Wanda

Random Perfection

May 5, 2015June 30, 201513 Comments

Birds fly.

Over the Rainbow, why then, oh why can’t I?

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can’t I?

—Over the Rainbow, Lyric by E.Y. Harburg, Music by Harold Arlen

One of my goals for 2015 was to finish my yellow hexagon applique quilt. The yellow hexagons led me to thinking about The Wizard of Oz musical which I saw last summer and the song, Over the Rainbow. I took the words and used hexagons as musical notes.

I hand appliqued the “notes” and added green and orange hexagons to my rainbow. I machine stitched them using the method I saw on Modern Handcraft.

I added orange for the binding and it looked fabulous.

Then I washed it!

I noticed that sides of the appliques were not stitched down and were coming out. This was caused by the way I folded the hexies. See in this photo the way the fabric was folded straight down. The stitching across the point of the hexagon did not catch the fabric. Some of the fabric caught and some didn’t.