Mama Quilt #5: Kristen Mauss

My most recently completed mama quilt was, I think, the most difficult. Going in, I didn't anticipate this fact at all. Kristen is one of my oldest friends; in fact, she was my very first friend at Western. We lived on the same floor, five doors away. After my first college class ever, I headed back to my room and along the way I came across her open door. I popped my head in, we chatted for a bit, and I decided I liked her. Since college is all about turning over a new leaf, I promptly said, "Would you like to be friends?" No sense in beating around the bush right? She laughed and agreed and we've been friends ever since.

If I had to describe Kristen Mauss as a literary character, without doubt or hesitation, I would tell you she is Jane Bennett, the elder sister of Miss Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice. She is kind and gentle and hands-down the easiest person in the world to be with. I've never heard her speak ill of another person (just like Jane) and she is rarely, if ever, frustrated to the point of exasperation (quite unlike myself). She is a friend in any and all circumstances (not to mention with just about everyone) and no matter how long it has been since you've spent time with Kristen, you can always pick up just where you left off. There is simply no better quality of friend.

But the trouble was, how to express all these lovely qualities in a quilt? That was a stumper. Such a stumper, in fact, that I started an entire quilt, got almost the whole top done, then dumped it and decided to start over. It simply wasn't right. It was a beautiful light turquoise-y pool-ish color, and I liked that, but the design and other fabrics were all wrong, wrong, wrong. So, I stuck with pool as the main color (mostly because Kristen told me she really liked that color and wanted it to be said color) but instead of pairing it with soft, subtle colors to compliment the pool, I decided to juxtapose it with several bold, funky, and interesting fabrics. Thus the companion fabrics don't all necessarily go together, but they DO create an interesting contrast to and pairing with the pool.

In this quilt, Kristen is the pool fabric; the backbone of the quilt and the foundation of the design. She meets each and every person (fabric) exactly as they are and creates a complimentary palette. She draws out what is beautiful in each fabric and together they make a fabulous design. The pattern is steadfast and consistent, but the effect is surprising and delightful as it draws your eye from block to block, throughout the whole quilt. It's trendy and bright, yet patient and warm.

I'm not as confident that the final result feels as Kristen and I thought Holly's quilt felt Holly...but I'm pretty sure I still got it right (and Andi told me she felt it was very Kristen, so I'm going to go with that). My only real hope is that Kristen loves it and knows just how much I love her.

I don't always name my quilts, but if I had to give this one a title, I'd call it "The Jane Bennett" in honor of Kristen.

Attention Carrie Fans!

New Album comes out on November 3!! New single (Cowboy Cassanova) is already out - SO GOOD!

Can't talk. Too excited! Listen for yourselves: http://www.carrieunderwoodofficial.com/

(Man she's awesome.)

Stay tuned for an album review in early November.

Mama Quilt #4: Holly Bedient

Note: I'm actually quite behind on my mama quilt posts, but better late than never, eh?

Mrs. Holly Bedient was the inspiration and recipient of my fourth mama quilt project. I was particularly excited to tackle Holly's quilt because she is so gregarious and bold I knew I had a real opportunity to be creative in my attempt to express her personality visually.

Generally speaking, Holly is pretty clear about what she does and doesn't like. She's a passionate and expressive person. (If you don't believe me, just ask her how she feels about Best Buy...) So for my purposes, this simplified things considerably. Hands down her favorite color is green and pairing it with brown was simply a no-brainer. That was an easy place to start. Then, as I sat and brainstormed about how I wanted to express the essence Holly, I thought about how I admired her gumption. She is simply not intimidated to try something new, to tackle a project (especially if it involves manly tools) or to wield some competitive challenge. I love that! She inspires me to try new things and to be unconcerned with failure. Just go for it!

Therefore, I felt like I had permission to break the rules and try something new. This translated into the pattern for the quilt. Originally I had chosen a diagonal stripe pattern, but as I was laying out the blocks, it felt all wrong to me. It wasn't brave; it was too orderly and safe. I nearly chucked the whole thing, but instead I rearranged the pieces until I had come up with a completely new design. I was quite satisfied (tickled even!) with the final product as it extended beyond the normal boundaries of the pattern and extended into the quilts boarder. Talk about a rule breaker!

My last comment speaks to the feeling of the quilt. I chose the fabrics for the quilt based simply on if they felt Holly enough to me. This exasperated my mother to no end. I walked up and down the aisles and aisles of fabric trying to hone in on what "felt Holly" to me. I initially found a couple right off the bat, but as my mom tried to help me find companion fabrics, I continuously rejected them saying, "Yeah...I guess that goes with the others, but it just doesn't feel right to me." My poor mom. But she hung in there with me and eventually I found what I was looking for and that satisfied my Holly vibe. The only trouble was, most of them were centerpiece fabrics - something you could build a whole quilt around. When you put them all together...it was a little chaotic. This troubled me at first, but I decided it simply couldn't be helped. These fabrics were all Holly and I was just going to have to find a way to get them all to compromise.

In the end, I think the design I came up with does a perfect job of bringing all the Holly-ness into an accurate picture of Holly. It's bright, it's bold, and yes, it's a little chaotic. But the chaos is reigned in and contained into something absolutely beautiful. And to me, that perfectly describes Holly: controlled chaos. I don't think you could successfully pull together this quilt with another combination of fabrics; it's one of a kind, just like my girl. ;)

So for your exclusive viewing pleasure, I give you Controlled Chaos, as inspired by Holly Bedient.


P.S. - In case you're wondering, Holly successfully delivered an adorable baby boy, William (Will) Bedient. Seriously, so cute. He's even got dimples. Way to go Mrs. B!

Towards Nighttime

It was brought to my attention earlier this week (and by a cop, no less) that my tabs were long expired. So needless to say, I decided to make haste in renewing those puppies. Since government offices are only open within the confines of a banker's work day, and since I am currently on a temp assignment in downtown Seattle, it was necessary for me to dedicate my lunch hour to the task.

So yesterday I sucked it up and walked the 0.7 miles to the nearest licensing office to pick up my new plates and tabs. As I walked in, a sigh escaped my lips: the line was already several people deep. There goes my lunch hour. Oh well, I'd forgotten my book today anyway. Immediately my eyes flicked around the room for a source of distraction from the tediously long line. I settled on an ugly piece of surreal art and I began reading the text beside it. It was a poem. The first line read:

My sister told me she was going to sleep.

Immediately I experienced a jolt of recognition. I know those words...but from where? I read the second line and was even more convinced I knew this poem.

She makes it sound like a place,

Something about it was so familiar...I didn't have the patience to read the whole thing and solve the mystery myself, so I skipped to the end in search of the author's name. Sure enough there it was: Matt Metsker*.

Suddenly I recognized the trippy art poster and recalled that in high school, Matt's poem was published on the sides of buses all over the city. I'm not sure why it's now posted (and framed!) in the downtown Seattle DOL, but no matter; it was a delightful discovery anyway.

If I've read that poem once, I've probably read it a hundred times. That same poster proudly hangs on the wall at Matt's parents house. Reading it again now, made me think of freshman year of college when I first met Matt and slapped eyes on that poem. I remember thinking he was tall, but not lanky, clean-shaven and baby-faced, and blind as a bat without his glasses. But mostly, easy to talk to. That has always been what I liked best about Matt; he's easy to talk to.

Bumping into Matt's poem at the DOL was like running into a familiar face out of context. It was fun to see it again and revisit old times, but even before parting, I knew we were different; I could see we had each changed. But that's the funny thing about a poem, it doesn't change. I suppose it's me then, who has done the changing. And I suppose too, that's a good thing.

At first, I liked Matt's poem. I remember thinking, "I wish I had thought to define sleep as a destination like that; it's so clever!" Now I read it with far more objective eyes, as a piece of writing rather than a friend's poem. And truthfully, I'm now more impressed that an 18 year old kid wrote it. Then, it seemed perfectly reasonable. Now, 18 sounds like a baby.

I'm not going to critque or review Matt's poem other than to say I enjoy it immensely. There's something about it that makes me want to tuck it into my pocket for later. Matt's writing often used to make me feel that way and I'm surprised to see that it still does. Must have a lasting quality to it somehow. I'm not sure if Matt is still penning his creative inklings, but as a reader, I sincerely hope so.

Therefore, in celebration of it's 10 year publication anniversary (and to commemorate my stumbling upon it so unceremoniously yesterday) here it is, in its entirety, for your reading pleasure (published here without author permission...but I'm pretty sure he won't mind).

Towards Nighttime
By, Matt Metsker

My sister told me she was going to sleep.
She makes it sound like a
place,
as if she'll go there and return in the morning.
If sleep is a
place, it must be a place
where everything fits.
In Sleep, I bet all the stoplights turn green
and there are never any awkward silences.

*If this statement garners no reaction from you, then you probably have no idea who Matt is. Hopefully you have guessed by this point, that I do. Matt and I were very good friends and eventually dated in college. It's been several years since we split up, but we're still on friendly terms.

Faux Grape Stomp Preparation

Since Uncle Paul is still recovering from the West Nile Virus (which he got from a mosquito bite, btw...uhm, Deet, anyone??) Grape Stomp 2009 has been canceled. But this certainly hasn't dampened our enthusiasm! We've simply planned a replacement event to tide us over until next year.

So, since it's nearly that time again, I thought I'd get the mood going and kick off the event with a look at everyone's favorite grape stomping lady (who is definitely worth repeated viewings):

Word of the Day

I stumbled across this new (to me) word, so I thought I'd share:

Ineffable: incapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressible: ineffable joy.

At first blush I thought, what a totally cool new word. I'm going to keep that one in my back pocket for future reference. But now, after a bit of thought, I have realized this word is irony incarnate; it's a word used to describe the undescribable.

Isn't that great? Try and use it in a sentence today.

...and Pancake-y Too

I saw this YouTube video on the local news (of all things - I know, weird) and I enjoyed it so much, I've watched it at least nine times. You've got to appreciate a couple who can laugh at themselves, even on their wedding day. It's only one minute and thirty-seven seconds long - watch it. Plus, her laughter is infectious.



(Did you catch The Princess Bride quote reference at the end?? LOVE IT!!!)