Friday, March 30, 2012

"Yes Sir, it is"

Four words that...
  • Made my day yesterday
  • Culminated 18 months of work
  • Spoken by a 17 year old, made a grown man cry
Those four words were spoken by MaryAnna yesterday in response to this statement and question, made by the Judge in our Adoption Finalization hearing: "MaryAnna, in the State of Ohio, you are old enough to have a say in your own adoption.  You have signed a consent form agreeing to this adoption, but I need to ask you directly, is it your wish to be adopted by Paul and Trish Perger and become a part of their family forever?"

"Yes Sir, It Is."

For those of you who are newer to my blog, Trish and I adopted Chyenne, now 11 years old, almost two years ago.  MaryAnna is Chyenne's biological sister and we had regular visits with her that began before the adoption of Chyenne was complete.

About 18 months ago, the adoption of MaryAnna became a possibility.  About a year ago, it became a reality, but we have hit legal snag after legal snag over the past year, but yesterday we finally didn't hit a snag.  Yesterday the Judge finally signed the papers and MaryAnna became a Perger.  In every sense of the word other than Legally she has been one for some time, but now she is a Perger in every sense of the word.


The Judge, Trish, MaryAnna, Me, Chyenne, Jonathon
Unfortunately, Josh (my eldest, a student at The University of Akron) had a test and some papers due and he was unable to be with us.

Until Next Time,
Paul

Friday, March 23, 2012

Thursday Night Sewing is Back!

Thursday Night Quilting is back... At least I hope it is back for a long time to come, but we'll see... life seems to get in the way of my hobbies much more than I like, but the kids are only kids once, and it won't be long before I am wishing they were still here keeping me running all over town like an underpaid cab driver.

Of course then I will be able to convert one of their bedrooms to my Man Cave and I'll be able to leave my sewing machine out, all of my fabric will be stored in easy to get to places, I can build my Radio Controlled airplanes that are sitting in the garage unused because I have two boys who would rather play soccer, football, climb mountains or ride bikes than build models.  But I digress...

As I posted earlier this week, I received my Quilting Foot earlier this week so I got to try it out last night, but before I did, I finished the 2011 BOM blocks that I have been working on intermittently for the past year.  I wanted to complete them because I am going to try a new technique with these blocks.  I am going to quilt each individual 12" block before I assemble the quilt.  The sashing will be the "glue" that holds the whole thing together.

So, here are the finished blocks...

I made two extra squares of the November square because
I want to make two pillows to go with the finished quilt.


Now I just need to figure out how I am going to arrange them... Another thing that Man Cave I mentioned earlier will have is a Design Wall!  I am going to electronically play around with arrangement later, but last night I wanted to try out my new Quilting Foot, so I set up the machine and started quilting. 

My new foot installed, thread pulled to the top, nerves wracking over
what I am about to do...  Will I ruin this perfectly good 10"
fabric sandwich?  Or will I somehow not completely destroy it?

WHY do I resist trying something new like I am going to be hurt by not being perfect right out of the gate!?  Why do I always worry that a new skill will just take too long to master?  It's funny, because I ask myself these questions every time I try something new and then I realize, "Hey, I can do this!"

My goal was figure out how fast my hands needed to move to get even stitches.  I wasn't worried about patterns, or how it looked, my ONLY concern was "Figure out how to get a somewhat uniform stitch length."  That's it.  I even resigned myself to the fact that I would not accomplish that on my first night, but by the time I was done, about 90% of my stitches were the same length!  It was encouraging to see how in just a 10" square I went from rather inconsistent to rather consistent.

Now I am not going to lie to you or to myself.  I won't truly be happy until my accuracy is more like 98%, and my designs actually move with a purpose, rather than the hodge podge way this sample does, but I have decided that I am going to cut the rest of the black fabric I have (about 3.5 yards) into 12.5 squares and I am going to start Free Motion Quilting at least one square every time I have my machine out.  And now I can get serious about the 2012 Free Motion Quilt Challenge that I wanted to start in January!  Oh well, better late than never!


Next week I will post some Kitten photos, as you might remember we had kittens 6.5 weeks ago and they are TOO adorable right now, but while I was quilting I was joined by MaryAnna's cat, Leah, who NEVER sticks around while I am quilting.  She hates the ironing board and the sound of the machine, but she stayed all night.  She watched until she fell asleep...


As always, THANKS for reading...

Until Next Time,
Paul



Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Spring is SPRUNG!!

It's the first day of Spring...

Look what I received in the mail!



Guess what I'll be doing this weekend!?

Until Next Time,
Paul

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Maria Elkins' Family Needs Prayer...

My most recent post contained a link to Maria Elkins website, and a few examples of her work.  She is a fabulous quilter, but she is much more than that.  She is also a wonderful wife to her husband Dave and mother to her children.

She posted some news regarding both Dave, who had a stroke (HERE) and her youngest daughter, whose unborn baby is showing signs of a devastating condition.  Rather than reiterate the details here, I am posting a link to her blog.  If you wish, you can read more HERE.  If you are a praying person, her family could use your prayers right now.

Until Next Time,
Paul

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Going Try Something NEW...

Wish me Luck...  And help me choose which to do.

Back in December, Maria Elkins, visited our Columbus Modern Quilt Guild meeting and shared some of her techniques and brought a number of her quilts along for us to inspect up close and personal.  I had seen Maria Elkins work before and was rather intimidated.  (Honestly, I still am!)  BUT, I am going to give it a try.  Maria does quilt portraits, and she has used many different methods, but the method I am going to attempt first is Fused Applique.

Here are some samples of her Fused Applique work to give you an idea of what this method is.  (Posted here with her permission).

Strawberry Delight - 12"x12"

Blue Dave - 17"x22"
These are just two of my favorite pieces of her work using the Fused Applique method that I will try first.  I am not going to attempt the complex shape cutting that is displayed in these two quilts, but you can clearly see the "look" of this method which I will use to quilt one of the following photos.

I have decided to do a hot air balloon as my first subject.  It will allow me to explore cutting "non-square" shapes and assembling them together without requiring all of the fine detailed curves and multiple layers required to achieve the looks of the portraits.  Rest Assured, I will try a portrait, but first, I am going to do a balloon.  The photos were taken by a cousin of mine Diane Dunton and I have promised to give her the resulting quilt.

Balloon A

Balloon B

Balloon C
I am going to let my readers choose this project... Leave a comment telling me which balloon you think I should do. A, B, or C.

I will of course post my progress as I work on it!

Until Next Time,
Paul