Hello, My Name is Doris

I love the AMC series "Mad Men". When I heard there was a "Are you a Marilyn or a Jackie" quiz, I looked it up and took it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I'm neither! I'm Doris!



You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me
* Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
* Share fun times with me.
* Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
* Let me know that I am important and special to you.
* Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships
* Reassure me that I am interesting to you.
* Reassure me often that you love me.
* Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris
* being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
* knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
* being generous, caring, and warm
* being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings
* being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris
* not being able to say no
* having low self-esteem
* feeling drained from overdoing for others
* not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
* criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
* being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them
* working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often
* are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
* try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
* are outwardly compliant
* are popular or try to be popular with other children
* act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
* are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents
* are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)
* are often playful with their children
* wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"
* can become fiercely protective

You can take the test yourself here I'd love to hear about your results!

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth

When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind's progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life

This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled “Arise Sir Knight!”). If you are interested, you can read the original version .

A Confession: What I REALLY Want For Christmas...

Dear Reader,

I confess, I love my hit counter. It tells me that a great many more people stop by here than I had realized without it. I'm sure if I offered a give away, I would get lots of people leaving comments, but that feels like bribing people for my own satisfaction, so I am honestly confessing my curiosity... who are you?

If you don't like publicly comment, would you send a private email, please? I'd love to know what brought you to my page, whether you're a quilter, and what you like to read in your free time.

Signed,
The Curious Confession Maker

Last Licks

I stopped a few inches shy of the end, so I could share the joy of finishing the binding on Mimi's quilt with you. Coming to the end of such a long unfinished project is a great victory as well as a great joy. I had hoped to finish the binding on Friday and get it in the mail, but instead, I'll take my victory lap today. One more quilt with a binding to sew down, and three table runners to quilt and I'm done with Christmas sewing. Wahoo!

In case you forgot what the front of this quilt looks like:

Dear Santa...

My quilting wishlist looks like this:

Binding Clips
Swiss Pins
Glass head Pins
Renewed subscription to BHG American Patchwork
Flexible curve
6 x 24 ruler (I can barely make out the markings on the one I have)
Magazine organizers
Rotary cutting blades
Superior monofil thread

What are you hoping to find under the tree this year?

ECQG Happenings

Today was Melinda's last day as president of the guild, it is the tradition of the guild to thank the outgoing president with a quilt, a project the 1st vice president (yours truly) chairs. If you know Melinda, then you know that lime green is a neutral, as far as she is concerned. There was no way we could make a quilt for her that didn't have at least a little bit of lime green! I chose the split 9-patch block and got to work on EQ deciding how to color it and set the blocks for an interesting quilt. Many thanks to Betty Alonsious for doing the quilting, it really made the piece come alive. It's been hard not to share with you the pictures as this quilt was coming together, but since Melinda is my most faithful reader, I couldn't possibly!

Also today, I was elected president of the ECQG. It's hardly a surprise, being first vice president usually (but not always) means that you will be elected as president in the following year. It's an honor, really, we've got 250 members, many of whom I've had the pleasure of knowing personally and serving alongside in one capacity or another. I am sorry to see Melinda step aside as president, she has done a wonderful job, and leaves me with VERY big shoes to fill.




The ECQG 2009 raffle quilt.

The biggest event on the horizon is our 2009 quilt show "Georgia Celebrates Quilts". If you are able to get to the Atlanta area for this wonderful show, you will see quits that rival those in the Nashville show. In addition to my "day job" as guild president, I am also co-chair of the set-up/take-down committee. Which means I get to see a blank convention hall transform in just over 24 hours into a beautiful quilt show. (What takes 24 hours to set up comes down in about 3 hours... it's AMAZING.)


Kathy got the owl pin cushion I made, and she seems to like it!

ECQG Pin Cushions

The ECQG is having a pin cushion exchange at our Christmas party. After looking at many patterns, I chose something that perhaps was not intended for a pin cushion, but was (in my opinion) adorable. I found the pattern in french, which I read passably well, but didn't really need for the completion of the project, it was so simple. I used a batik flannel for the body, a toast colored flannel for the belly, and they are filled with crushed walnut shells. I made four, one for each of the guild exchanges I was hoping to attend, one for myself and one for a briner friend who had us over for dinner recently.

Working Wednesdays

Those who have known me for the past couple of years have asked how I've suddenly become more productive. Here's the secret: I have a dedicated day for quiltmaking. On Wednesdays I typically have no appointments or errands that need to be run, I have stopped accepting lunch dates and planning meetings for Wednesday. I can start sewing the minute hubby and Kay leave the house in the morning and go until Kay returns from school. I can get a lot done in that space of time. It's not always quilting. It not even always sewing. I spent one whole day reorganizing my fabric room so I could use it and find things more easily. It is always about getting things done so I can finish more projects. Of course, I work on quilts at other times during the week, I carry handwork with me virtually everywhere, and love to sit and watch a movie with the family while doing hand stitching, but having a dedicated day gives me time to sit at my machine and really pound through a project.

It takes some planning. I either make a big enough meal the night before that I don't have to cook on Wednesday, or I make an easy enough meal that I don't have to do a lot of prep during the day. I make sure that whatever I need for the project at hand is in the house. I don't want to have to run over to the LQS in the middle of the day, or stop working because I don't have enough of the right thread. I make sure that on Tuesday I have cleared counters, tables, or whatever else is necessary as a working space for the project at hand. Also I make sure I either have something entertaining, it could be something saved on the DVR, an audio book, or a DVD. Currently I'm listening to "Team of Rivals". It's very LONG and has kept me good company.

So what am I working on today? Placemats, table runners and grocery sacks that fold up like quillows, all Christmas gifts.

The Oldest UFO

One of my goals for this year has been to get some UFO's off the shelf. This quilt is the oldest of all my UFOs.
A long time ago I got a crazy idea over Thanksgiving weekend to make a queen sized quilt for each of my siblings. The first two were easy, a blooming 9-patch, and a modified scrappy bargello. Both were quilted with fairly simple meandering and done in a week. This last quilt was harder. I had a stack of blocks, and decided to make a sampler quilt.




Well enough. I made the borders, planning as I went along. Got it sandwiched and did the bare bones quilting (stitching in the ditch around ever major element) and began doing some of the detail work in the blocks. I got stumped about what to do next, and as I usually have done, put it aside. My sister opened a box with a partially quilted quilt and happily gave it back to me so I could finish it. Then I got pregnant. I got distracted with other things. Our dad was dying. We were both expecting babies. This quilt languished. Then, not long after dad died, my husband and I decided to move to Georgia. It got packed in a box and all but forgotten about.


Mimi and I have been joking about this "unfinished symphony" for nearly a decade. Last month I decided to finally drag it out and finish it so I could give it to her for a Christmas gift this year. (Lesson here, folks... if you wait long enough, you can give the same gift, twice.)




Well, last month finished out without even a stitch going into this quilt. But yesterday I pulled it out and got to work. The Lord himself must have sent me strength and determination because I got most of the quilt finished in one day. All of the detail work that was needed in the blocks, and the next three borders is done. I have only the final border to finish and then the binding. Hooray!

Piecemaker's Christmas Brunch

At the Piecemaker's Christmas brunch on Monday, many members revealed their finished exchange quilts. Mine is not ready to be unveiled yet, but I wanted to show you the beautiful quilts others have done. You may remember that everyone provided a focus fabric she liked, and committed to making a particular block for each member in a color way that complimented her choice of focus fabric. We each made 16 blocks. You can see those blocks in my October 28 blog entry. Now you can see how creatively our group set those blocks!

Linda's Quilt:


Jan's Quilt:


Joanne's Quilt:


Nancy's Quilt:


Gail's Quilt:


Barbara's Quilt:


Michelle's Quilt:

Monthly Accounting

Hey what do you know, it's time to make the second installment of monthly accounting.

So how did I do with my goals last month?

Completions:
-Quilt and bind table runner for my sister-in-law as a hostess gift for Thanksgiving

Made Progress:
-Binding for "Blush and Bashful" (Kay's pink and pink glorified 9 patch quilt)
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Princeton Plainsboro" (2007 Piecemaker's house quilt project)
-Make applique center for 2008 Piecemakers' exchange quilt
-Finish piecing the top for "Ramblin' Rose"
-Finish blackwork blocks by the end of 2008.

Left Untouched:
-Sandwich, quilt and bind "Briner's Picnic"
-Finish quilting Victorian sampler quilt for my sister's Christmas gift.

New items to put on my list for December:

2 pin cushions for the ECQG exchange

3 placemats/tablerunner sets for gifts

6 grocery sacks for gifts