It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all–in which case, you fail by default. ~J.K.Rowling
Mar20
Monday Morning Wisdom #405
Author Archives: Andrea R Huelsenbeck
Mar19
From the Creator’s Heart #394
Mar18
Yay! It’s Quilting Day!
In honor of National Quilting Day today, I’m going to bring you up-to-date on my long arm (really mid arm) quilting adventures.
If you’re a regular reader of ARHtistic License, you know that last November I got a HandiQuilter Moxie. Then I had six private Zoom lessons with a HandiQuilter educator to learn how to use it. I made a practice piece to try out free motion quilting and also the ProStitcher Lite robotic quilting software. The piece was not good enough for a human being to use, but I thought it might work as a quilt for Ralph.
Ralph was not impressed. (Yawn.)
At the same sewing and quilting festival where I ordered my Moxie, I’d bought some fat quarters of designer fabric. I added some fabric from my stash to it, and I pieced a top for a lap quilt. This was to be my first “real” quilt quilted on the Moxie.
Man. I had a time of it. I knew what quilting pattern I wanted to use, but I couldn’t get it to run. The error message said the pattern was larger than the frame area, though it didn’t look like it was larger on the screen. I couldn’t figure out how to make the design a little smaller. I tried setting it up multiple times, but I couldn’t get it to run, so I tried a different quilting pattern.
I didn’t realize how much smaller this new pattern was until I began running it. I didn’t like it, but I figured it would be a good lesson. It was, but not in the way I expected.
I did two passes of the pattern, and then it was time to advance the quilt (shift it so that I could work on the next unquilted part). It was then that I discovered the bottom tension was all messed up.
It’s funny–as the design repeated, the tension improved, but it was still not good. I decided to take it all out and start over. The only good thing about bad tension is that the stitches are easy to pull out.
While I was pulling out those bad stitches, I had plenty of time to ruminate, and I realized that I had watched a video about resizing quilting patterns. If I could find it, I could use the pattern I originally wanted.
But first I had to fix my tension. I reread the section of the manual on tension, and I watched a lot of videos. I followed all the instructions, but no matter what adjustments I made, it didn’t seem to affect the tension at all. I worked on it for days. I must have tightened the little knob 30 rotations, and I still had what looked like couching on the back of my quilt. (It looked like a thread lying on the surface, held in place by small stitches.) One instruction on one of the videos made no sense to me: the instructor said that the thread should snap between the tension discs. I couldn’t make it do that. So I took a picture of the tension discs and texted it to the store technician I’d ordered it from. He told me the discs were too tight together, and I need to loosen the knob at least 10 rotations.
Yep. He was right. I loosened it severely, and then I was able to snap the thread between the discs. It still took a long time until I could get the tension to look acceptable. It’s not perfect, but much better.
I figured out how to tweak the quilting pattern so that it fit within the frame area, and in one day I quilted the entire lap quilt. I wish I could say everything went smoothly; it did not. I forgot the “drag and drop” sequence when I advanced the quilt, and I had to figure out how to make the machine start quilting at the right spot again. I don’t even know how to explain the problem and the solution, but if that ever happens to you, watch this video, starting around the 5:30 mark. (I don’t have the same machine or the same frame or the laser light, but by following his “drag and drop” directions, I got my machine properly lined up.)
I just have to finish hand-stitching the binding to the back of the quilt, and then it’s ready to be my new TV-watching quilt. (Yes, I like to be all snuggled up in a blankie when I watch TV.)
So here’s a sneak peak at my next quilting project, some blocks for quilts for our new granddaughters:
The babies came over on Tuesday.
Me and Etta:
Greg and Robin:
Do we look like we’re at all happy to be grandparents?
Mar17
Creative Juice #335
Quilts, books, and a different take on public art; then it’s all about Ireland.
- Some modern takes on the classic log cabin quilt.
- Best books for adults to read. I’ve read 7 of the 23 titles on this list, and they all gave me lots to think about. Some of these books are also appropriate for children.
- Beautiful farmhouse, beautiful illustrations, beautiful book.
- Earth murals.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day! So the rest of today’s links celebrate the Emerald Isle.
- If you like the late Irish guitarist, Rory Gallagher, or if you like Stratocaster guitars, you might want to watch this video.
- Cliffs and legends of Ireland.
- All about St. Patrick.
- An exhaustive description of Ireland.
- Mind your etiquette in Ireland; avoid doing these things or you’ll offend someone.
- Beautiful pictures of Ireland on this Instagram account.
- Art of Ireland.
- Songs of Ireland. #7 epitomizes what I think of when I think of Irish music.
Mar16
Video of the Week: The Versatile Moss Stitch
Mar15
Wordless Wednesday
Mar14
The Stool
When my father was young, all the boys at his school were required to take a class called Wood Shop, where they learned to make things out of wood. The project for eighth grade was to make a stool, for which Dad earned a coveted A+.
When I was growing up, that stool occupied a place of honor next to the hearth. Every night before bedtime, I sat on that stool while Dad relaxed in his armchair and asked me questions about my day. What was I learning in school? What was my happiest moment of the day? What’s one thing I did that I’d like to do better next time? The questions were often adapted to particular circumstances, but they usually involved expressing gratitude for blessings received, and acknowledgement of areas to focus on for personal growth.
When I left for college, the last item squeezed into the trunk of my vintage Buick was that three-legged stool, with the fatherly instruction to spend five minutes at the end of each day celebrating my accomplishments and thinking about the path toward becoming a man of character.
A few years after finishing my degree, I met the woman of my dreams, married her, and soon we started our family. The stool stood across from my armchair in the living room, and from the time they were very young, each of our three children took their turns sitting on the stool and answering my nightly questions about their day. I found their answers sweet, and at times troubling, but I strove to affirm their successes and their struggles without inspiring guilt, and they rewarded me with disarming honesty and sometimes hilarity.
As my children left for college, I kept the stool at home, and reminded them that it was always available if they wanted to come and talk. And that’s what they did when they had something to share—a disappointment, a milestone, a problem that needed another person’s perspective. I like to think they understood they would always be welcomed and safe.
After sixty years of marriage, my wife passed away. The house felt empty and cavernous. I knew it was time to downsize. I found a little condo in a retirement community, and I said goodbye to most of my possessions.
The final item to relinquish was the stool. My oldest son came to claim it. I walked him to the car, and he turned it upside down to place it on the back seat. “Wait—did you see this, Dad? There’s something written here.”
I squinted, trying to make out the faded, penciled letters written in a childish scrawl: “To my future son. I hope I listen to you like my father never did to me.”
Note to my readers: This is a piece of fiction. My other ideas for today’s post were just too daunting, so I searched a Writer’s Digest PDF called A Year of Writing Prompts for something I could finish quickly. The prompt for February 9 went like this: Your father made the chair when he was a boy, and it’s gotten rickety. Preparing to finally throw it away, you flip it over to carry it to the trash, and notice a message etched in with a knife. It reminded me of a stool my husband Greg made in Wood Shop, which eventually got thrown away when it was too rickety to use anymore. This is the story it inspired.
Mar13
Monday Morning Wisdom #404
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Mar12
From the Creator’s Heart #393
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33 NIV).
Mar11
Haydn in Plain Sight
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period.
His brilliant Trumpet Concerto:
Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family. Being isolated from other composers and trends in music forced him to be original. Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe.
Haydn Piano Trio no. 44 in E major:
He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, and a tutor of Beethoven.
The Lord Nelson Mass:
Haydn wrote 107 symphonies in total, as well as 83 string quartets, 45 piano trios, 62 piano sonatas, 14 masses and 26 operas, amongst countless other scores. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio.
Cello Concerto No. 1:
The musicians who performed with him called him “Papa” Haydn. The nickname became increasingly meaningful as Haydn’s 30-plus years of service in the Eszterházy court went by; with each year, he became increasingly older than the average musician serving under him. Clemons Höslinger says, “Papa arose as a term of affection, commonly used by the Esterházy players … for a father figure, somebody who willingly gave advice and who was generally respected as a musician.” Eventually, musicians who called Haydn Papa expanded beyond the Esterházy court and included many who admired and acknowledged his work.
Piano Sonata in E-flat major, Hob. XVI/52, L. 62
Another sense of the term “Papa” Haydn came from his role in the history of classical music, notably in the development of the symphony and string quartet. While Haydn did not invent either genre, his work is considered important enough that the labels “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet” are often attached to him.
The Creation, an oratorio on the scale of Handel’s Messiah:
Perhaps more than any other composer’s, Haydn’s music is known for its humor. The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in the slow movement of his “Surprise” symphony; Haydn’s many other musical jokes include numerous false endings (such as in his quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op. 50 No. 3), and the whimsical rhythmic play in the trio of the third movement of his string quartet Op. 50 No. 1, movement 3 (Menuetto):
According to Bachtrack, Symphony no. 45 in F sharp minor, “Farewell,” was composed while Haydn’s patron and his court were at the summer palace at Eszterháza in 1772. Their stay had been longer than expected and the musicians were anxious to return to their families back in Eisenstadt, so Haydn sent a not-so-subtle message. During the finale, each musician stopped playing, snuffed out the candle on his music stand and left the stage until only two violinists, Haydn himself and concertmaster, Luigi Tomasini, were left. Message received; the court returned home the following day!
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