yet more contemplation…hope I live long enough to accomplish all that I contemplate! Sunbonnet sue… my youngest daughter is a bit dark…not goth but dark nonetheless…when she was a wee person my mom made old fashioned sun bonnets for both my girls and they were beyond cute…I found the bonnets when searching for a chunk of my stash I knew was somewhere…and though aw my babies bonnets…looking at my girls now I think the bonnets would mortify them..thus they are on display now (HA) but I also thought hey how about a dark rather disturbing sunbonnet sue quilt… sue in a snake since I just got a new snake…sue falling off a cliff…sun going super nova baking sue…um yeah very dark…I’ve printed 12 regulation sues and will be modifying them ala pencil over the weekend to see what I can come up will…guess I’m a bit touched…

K…so a few fellow quilter’s think this is the cat’s pajamas and can’t wait to see the finish project…Other’s are disturbed verging on rather angry about it…here’s the deal…I’ve never been an average quilter, much less artist or human for that matter. I laugh at myself when I fall down… I giggle at off color jokes… I’m so outside the box it has been picked up as refuse and recycled…so when I started contemplating slaughtering Soo of the bonnet…I just saw it as yet another way to express my creativity and flamboyant eccentricness. So yeah…I’m killing of sunbonnet sue…in 16 fabulous 12-inch square blocks!

Picked up the main block fabric a lovely snotty, pus shaded, sputum with a dash of rotted flesh phlegm green and the as Jaz put it clotted blood red for the sashing.

Titles of Soo’s blocks may very well be: Snake eating Sōō, Noosed Sōō, Sun supernova Sōō, Nuclear fallout Sōō, Helmetless scooter accident Sōō, Bumblebee allergy Sōō, Drive by Sōō, Conqueror worms chewing on Sōō, Tattooed ‘bad’ Sōō, Grapefruit spoon death Sōō, Acid rain I’m melting Sōō, Wee airplane crash into Sōō’s head, Can’t swim Sōō /shark, Handgun accident Sōō, Off with her head Sōō, Squished in mosh pit Sōō…

Why did I change the spelling of Sue for my Slaughtering Soo of the Sun Bonnet Quilt?!?
Well let me tell you…my manager’s name is Sue and I really like her as a person and didn’t want to use her spelling on my rather mean hearted quilt. I have a half sister Susan and even though I haven’t seen her since I was like 12 I didn’t want to use her spelling since she is my sister…we in my family try not no name anything after anyone else unless it’s a child. My mom had gotten 2 tree frogs when I was very young and named them after me and my cousin Eric…well they both died pretty quick…really sad…then there’s the steer on the farm named Gladys…My grandma wasn’t overjoyed with his name since that name was shared with her sister…thus the changing of the spelling.
If there are any readers, quilters or blog checker outers out there named Soo…No offence intended to you…I just had to change the spelling just enough to have it still mean the same thing just a different spelling!

Other spellings of Sue I veered away from:
Sioux
Sue
Suellen
Susan
Susanna
Susannah
Susanne
Susie
Susy
Suzanne
Suzette
Suzie
Suzy

I am having so much fun and satisfaction doing the Dear Jane quilt by hand. I finished the 1st row in 11 days, and that was with at least 2 blocks that really made me think.
I ordered the next book by the author of Dear Jane...hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be picking up Dear Hannah.
I've started compiling Dear Yane...a quilt based on these but all blocks of either my creation or blocks that are in neither the Jane nor Hannah. The Yane blocks will be 6 square when finished rather than 4.5, so Yane will be a bit larger. And rather than triangle blocks on the edge there will be more 6 inch blocks turned on point. This could prove interesting. I hope to incorporate fabric origami, cathedral windows, block with appliquéd scenes and tactile goodies like buttons, ribbon and lace on the yane.

Seems to me quilts made 'in the good ol' days' always had a few stories in them. They were made from scraps of clothing, linens out grown clothing that had been passed down through every child in the family and occasionally cousins, in-laws and grands...every wee piece of cloth had a story if only to the quilter herself or the lucky recipient of the lovie. Now we make quilts of fabric purchased just for the quilt...or a kit...sigh, if need be we really don't need to put much thought into our quilts. Mind you I'm for surely not speaking of anyone in particular or me even... But as I go through fabric and quilting sites, catalogs and stores...everything is 'just right'...the colors go together, the patterns have a 'family' so we don't really have to put effort into it if we don't want to. We of the Dear Jane sect and any other tiny block see the work that was put into the original quilt...we're attempting the same. But we have a book with patterns, even EQ. Can you imagine doing any of this from scratch? With perhaps paper from a mailed letter, a ruler if we're lucky, chunk of pencil we sharpen with a knife...scraps from our dresses, the curtains, some dish cloths a needle, thread and hopefully a thimble? And that's it...nothing else...I though my cloth diapers were a chore with my youngest daughter...I am counting my blessing as I make my dear Jane...and I'm adding a story to every block so when it's done I can read my quilt to my family and each person will see how important they are to me. How each event I make a block for, how every place I make a block for holds memories I hold dear. I think I'm more than merely making a quilt I'm creating a kind of family/friends history tree. I come from a blended family, so my many siblings, cousins, uncles, aunties, grandparents are all going to be noted with blocks, my girls, my daughter who died, my sweet grandson, me best friend who's been there forever and her girls and grand kids...pets, towns, droughts, floods, storms...remember when...
Hmmm…thus my ramble come to an end…

CLUBS CLUBS EVERYWHERE!


Wanna feel just dandy? Make a lovie for a wee person who could really use one!
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Happy Hump Day…well for me it’s my Friday eve also since my Fridays are free of charge now. WOW just got my 1st 32-hour paycheck…good thing I was already sitting down or I would have surely collapsed in a dead heap! 8 missing hours and more taxes being taken out…talk about shock and awe. Could have handed me a live grenade and it wouldn’t have peeled my eyes off the lack of money. Thank Maude in HIMMEL Jim still has a job and is still working 40 hours per week. As I knock on simulated wood grain…Nonetheless I have much to do with this pittance!

Jazmin has tonsillitis and of course there are no samples of antibiotics at the clinic so I get to go there 1st after cashing this joke on paper and hopefully not have to give them more than half of it for the drugs. Gotta get Gas…another painful moment, male out the box of fabric in trade for the pretty plate…I’ll forgo car insurance till Saturday when I cash my state tax refund, got that yesterday…honestly I’m shocked anyone getting a refund this year is being allowed to actually have it at the rate everything’s going! Rant! Then drop off Tab and Oliver at their apartment…drop off Jazmin’s drugs…

And go all alone to the quilt shop for my Dear Jane book and colors for the 1st 2 or 3 or 9 blocks…I’ve it all figured out…each block will be a different color of the rainbow!
Totally cool in a totally not 1930’s reproduction way! BOOWAHAHAHA! All the backgrounds will be dappled crème colored batik except the white blocks, which will have bright rainbow batik for the background. Although damn near destitute, I’m really looking forward to starting this MASSIVE project. I realize ‘Cornea-Sizzling-Synapse-Frying-Dear-Jane's-a-Pain-in-the-Quilt’ will take quite a while to accomplish but it will be well worth the time and pin pricks. Should painfully fan-tab-u-lous! Well hey…keeps me out of the bars…ha…hate bars…don’t even hardly ever drink anything fiercer than coffee…go figure!

Saturday Jim and I, perhaps Jaz if she’s no longer catchy, will venture into the beeg ceety Minneapolis to cash the tax check, get the money order for the car insurance and one for my order from keepsake quilting…then to a few hopefully only a few previously viewed furniture stores to sniff and I do really mean sniff out some furniture for the living room. Having never had brand new furniture in the living room and having gotten many a used piece of furniture I know exactly what I do NOT want coming into the house! Anything thread bare, anything with cat/dog/other hair on it, anything with critters living in it i.e. fleas My penny pinching X found a chair in the trash…not sitting on the side of the road saying free but chucked into a dumpster, brought it home and not only was the chair infested with fleas soon our cat and in fact I had flea bites too…we had to bomb the apartment and chuck the chair. I put a sign on it that said beware: fleas! And ANYTHING with an odor! I got a really nice looking couch from a co-worker once…the smell of cigarettes was so overpowering you could get a contact high just from brushing up against it…the smell NEVER left the couch. Had it for over a year and every time I walked into my house the smell hit me like a brick. Since I don’t smoke my nose works just fine, almost too well at times…so what ever we find for the living room has to be more than just Fabreezed for quick sale. I want a comfy chair preferably a rocking but not spinning type. Jim wants a recliner but since we have an ottoman perhaps just a comfy chair would be OK. Jaz wants one of those video chair deal that looks like an upholstered banana. And a coffee table. I’d really prefer everything to be black, red, purple or any combination of those three. Perhaps once we fill the truck with non-stinky bug free slightly attractive furniture I hope we can go to IHOP, never been there…I’d love some French toast and sausage! Hoping we can be super time efficient so we can grab groceries on the way home so Sunday will be mine to cut, sew, contemplate!

When-Z-dae eve and have many plans for payday…as it were…32.5 hours give er take. Minus medical insurance, let’s see 98 bucks…minus 401K –unattractive sound-…joke… 10 bucks, 61 cents…take away FICA 32 bucks, yank out federal tax um, 34.42…ry out state tax oooh, 15.55…then there car insurance this week…heavens I do hope I get my taxes soon… Nonetheless after getting the money order for car insurance Gotta mail out the box of batiks I traded for the fabulous dancing under the moon plate when I pick up the money order and the 1 stamp. Gas up the Jeep, and I’m off the Heavenly Patchwork to pick up my Dear Jane quilt book… -hands in air which looks odd for me and a hoot hoot-get another yard of light cream batik for background and browse the plethora of novelty fat quarters…and if $ allows get 1 yard of a bright solid-ish teal/turquoise and 1 yard of something rainbowie-eye-burning with lack so I can FINALLY finish the Extreme-Retinal-Damage-Rainbowie-but-keep-Jim-Warm-Quilt, whew it would be ever so nice to get our quilt done before winter ends! I’ll have to stop at Douber’s and get hmmm, 5-6 skeins of bright embroidery floss for the tying since I’m only machine quilting the outer borders to keep the blanket inside from shifting too much.

When I ever get the tax check…I’ve got to order a roll off trash bin so we can totally clean out the shed and entry way to make room for all of dad’s saws and carpentry equipment he’s giving Jim. Pay up the gas/electric bill (UGH), pay off all of Jazmin’s medical bills, Maude I haven’t even added them all up because I’m afraid of the total! Get furniture for the living room so we can put away the camping chairs, which are too totally uncomfortable. I really want NEW furniture but it looks like we’ll be going to Saver’s or some other previously viewed store. Sigh! Just a love seat, perhaps a rocking type chair for me, a coffee table…something for Jaz to sit on…You know I look at the grand total of my tax rebate and although it is dandy, I see just how fast it will leave my hands and where it all will go…won’t be going into fixing up the house, won’t go to a bit of clothing or new shoes, I just really hope there’s a chunk left so I can go through a few fabric catalogues and get fixin’s for the next years worth of quilts to donate. Oh and pay up my car insurance for an entire year so I have one less bill every month. Money really sucks when you have it, when you don’t, when you need it…UGH! Oh to be the working poor!

Jim is totally stressed; one of the welders where he works was laid off yesterday. There are only 5 employees where he is so you can imagine how slow it must be to have 20% of your workforce not working. He hopes he’s not next, Maude me too! Just for his sanities sake if nothing else. There’s a part timer there still. I’m hoping if nothing else that guy will be next for the chopping block before Jim. I mean we will survive with him on unemployment till he can find something else. Just tighten the belt in a few places; we’ll be fine. I brought home a list of phone numbers yesterday for Jazmin to call to search for employment. I can see her MySpace activities from work and her being ‘bored’ is getting mighty tiring! Course then there’s her hand out every time she senses money in my wallet and that she has basically quit doing any chores at home (thus no allowance). Way tiring. If she can’t do anything at home AT ALL except whine and complain she can get a job so she has a reason to be tired.

Speaking of whining…I think I’ve done enough!