+ Her Barefoot Heart
I'm just your basic complicated simple red dirt girl who feels most beautiful when wearing skirts that caper and earrings that dangle. Entering into my Second Life (my tenured phase, I call it), I tell, write, stitch, and perform stories about this time of life when the mythological (and downsized) empty nest is now filled with aging pets, aging parents, a retired husband, and the knowledge that you're living on the finite side of infinity.
The Engineer: Do you see the Rainbow Trout?
The Artist: Not yet, but would you just look at that heart and
that exclamation point sunning themselves right beside each other!
Then whoosh – in that snap of a moment,
I have my way into the piece I’m writing.
And I have my segue.
I declare: walking is as necessary to writing
as inhaling is to breathing.
Two nights with little (last night) or no (the night before last) sleep caught up with me today. The reason for the sleepless night is that my bedtime reading was a first-person account of the Holocaust, and her stories were even more horrifying than anything I’ve seen, read, or heard to date. By the time I gave myself permission to close the book, it was too late. The images and feelings were stirred and refused to be quieted. 48 hours later, they are still with me – especially imagining how The 70273 we commemorate must have been treated. I am not one to play ostrich and bury my head in the sand, finding that a dangerous act that paves way for atrocities, but I can now understand better than ever why some people make such choices.
Though there’s much to do, I decided there was nothing to do but move slowly through today and punctuate the afternoon with a nap.
So I first ironed the red fabric that Tami Kemberling donated to The 70273 Project.
Ironing flat pieces is much easier than ironing clothes.
Then I stitched a bit on a tenured Work In Progress,
a piece in The Rinse Cycle: Pivotal Epiphanies in a Woman’s Life series,
and marveled at how much I like the wrong side of pieces
sometimes more than I like the right side.
In high school, I made my dress for the senior prom
(Yes, I had that much personality)
and I horrified my mother and her friends
by choosing to make the wrong side of the fabric
the right side.
Only Ms Johnson thought it a daring and brilliant move
on my part.
In return, I found her a daring and brilliant woman.
Then I stitched a bit on the Storm at Sea quilt
I’m making for my boy, Kipp.
It is the never-ending quilt, to be sure
because I did the Jeanne thing
and opted to hand stitch each block individually
instead of quilting straight rows across.
I tried the straight across approach and felt it disrupted the magic
of this pattern, so I ripped it all out,
took a deep breath
and started again.
It takes about 12 hours to quilt an entire block.
Every now and then I count the blocks waiting to be quilted
and formulate a plan for reaching the finish line –
1 block finished on Monday and Tuesday;
2 blocks finished on Wednesday and Thursday;
3 blocks finished on Friday and Saturday:
and so on till I know what day I will be finished.
Then I take a day (or ten) off
and must devise a new plan.
My current targeted deadline is Christmas.
I might make that.
Might.
The Engineer, who refuses to take naps
and sometimes (thought not today, thankfully)
it seems he decides that nobody else will nap either,
busied himself rearranging the deck furniture,
bringing some furniture up from the lower deck
to find a new home on the upper deck
and presumably carting other pieces
down to the lower deck.
Both decks are rather small,
so I dread going outside tomorrow
to find (yet another) space that has that
just-moved-in look.
The Engineer doesn’t nap
and I don’t tolerate clutter well (at all).
Even after all these years, though,
we find a way to compromise
and live together with respect for
each other without completely abdicating our own selves.
We’ve become experts at choosing
which hills we’re willing to die on
and which hills to let go.
Some days that’s easer than others.
Every day it’s at the top of the list of things love must do.
It’s been a busy week, though not all the busyness is in The 70273 Project corner.
BLOCK COUNT
I now have 1342 blocks in my hands – up 126 from last week. This is great – fantastic, even – and if we’re gonna meet Kitty Sorgen’s goal of 2000 blocks in my hands by 7/4/2016, we’re gonna’ have to keep up the pace and maybe even step it up a little bit because we have to allow travel time for the blocks to get from you to me.
GEOGRAPHY
As for Sunday night, I’ve heard from people in 70 different countries. Keep spreading the word, y’all.
WRITING
Speaking of getting the word out . . . I penned a guest blog this week, and as soon s it’s published, I’ll sure let y’all know. I’ve also been asked to write a piece for every issue of The Blue Mountain Review (a.k.a. The Blue), which is part of The Southern Collective Experience – isn’t that fun? Clifford wants my first piece to be about The 70273 Project. Other pieces will be about Southern people and places and ways. Y’all stay tuned for more about that, too.
NEW PROVENANCE FORMS
The new Provenance Forms continue to come in by the hand full, so if you haven’t already, please take a minute to complete, sign, and return it so we can continue moving forward.
UPDATE TO PROJECT DIRECTORY IN SIDEBAR
Somebody on Facebook (I’m sorry and embarrassed that I can’t remember who it was, so I can’t let her know that I did it) asked me to include a link to The 70273 Project flyers in the sidebar. Whoever you are – thank you for the suggestion, and consider it done.
QUILT #1 UPDATE
Quilt #1 (pieced by Kitty Sorgen and quilted by MJ Kinman) has been quilted, and MJ and I are now figuring out how to do the labels I want.
OTHER QUILTS
Later this week, I’ll be boxing up more blocks to send to folks who’ve raised their hand to piece and/or quilt a quilt. (That’s why I need to get those new Provenance Forms back in.) I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again: this project is filled with good, big hearts.
Y’all please keep making blocks and spreading the word cause that’s what it takes. Till next week . . .
Yesterday Morning – 6.3.2016 – on the occasion of The Engineer’s Birthday . . .
The Artist: How do you want to spend your birthday?
The Engineer: I want to take you to that quilt show you just told me about that’s this weekend in Waynesville.
So we took a nice, leisurely drive over to Waynesville, NC
Shady Ladies Self Portraits
And attended the Shady Ladies Quilt Show.
The Old Rice Barn by Evelyn Case
The Old Rice Barn 2 by Evelyn Case
Crabtree Barn by Lisa Heller
The Engineer especially enjoyed the barn quilts
50 Stude by Marilyn Sullivan
and the quilt of the old car
(The quilt is not for sale, but the car is.)
At an even more leisurely pace, I shopped in the boutique, picking up some hand dyed fabric and a couple of other women’s UFO’s (I’m bad to do that) among other things like a quilted eyeglass case for my shiny new sunglasses and a quilted notepad for my pocketbook.
Later in the truck . . .
The Artist: I’m sorry I took my time looking around.
The Engineer: No need to apologize.
The Artist: But it’s your birthday, and I spent a couple of hours of it looking at quilts and shopping. That doesn’t seem right.
The Engineer: It’s really okay. I enjoy watching you look at things that really capture and fascinate you.
Now I ask y’all: Did I pick a good one or what?
(Remember when asked how he wanted to spend the day and he said he wanted to take me to that quilt show? Well, I did hear him mutter under his breath at the end of the sentence: “I’d rather get it out of the way today than to have to dread going tomorrow.”)
But still . . .
We went to eat at one of his favorite restaurants in Waynesville, a place we enjoyed many meals with his dad before he died. They gave The Engineer a free big ole’ scoop of ice cream. (And brought 2 spoons.)
And I came home and backed him that pound cake he likes so much. Even let him eat a lot of the batter (which really isn’t all that unusual, actually).
Happy Birthday, Andy. I really enjoyed your special day, start to finish.
Of course any day spent with you is special-with-a-capital-S.
Today is Nancy’s birthday,
and don’t you know that
She is The Gift.
the gift of laughter
and love
and reminders of what’s important and what’s not.
of being content with what you have and where you are
instead of looking for That One Special Thing
that will make you happy or make your life Complete.
She’s an example of how to accept help from others
without feeling needy or inadequate
or obligated.
She gifts so many with her art,
her smile,
her Being.
Becoming Nancy’s sister-in-law might just be the best gift
The Engineer ever gave me,
and let me tell you what:
he’s a fantastic gift-giver.
Happy birthday, Nancy.
Here’s to many more years of
drawing and stitching
laughing and loving
and good health.
Cheers. Clink.
Can y’all believe we just finished week #15? Time does fly, doesn’t it? I got home on Friday, 5/28, so updates are a bit on the skimpy side again. But there are still plenty of things to report and cheer:
~ I now have 1216 blocks in hand!
~ We celebrate Milestone Block #1000, a 3.5″ x 6.5″ (9 cm x 16.5 cm) beauty made by Glenda Williams who lives in Australia.
~ And we celebrate Milestone Block #1200, another 3.5″ x 6.5″ (9 cm x 16.5 cm) beauty made by Bev Haring who lives in the US.
~ As of Sunday night, I have heard from people in 69 different countries.
~ This came in from Lucy Horner, a delightful woman who’s astoundingly and productively creative, and is a crackerjack photographer (which is how I met her – in a wonderful photography class):
Hi Jeanne, I’ve just had this message from the Dean of Rochester Cathedral – “This is a very powerful initiative and I will pass this on to the Embroiders and also to the congregation as a whole. I would be more than happy for the quilts to be on display in the cathedral whenever that point is reach and do keep me informed. It might provide a very striking display at a future Holocaust Memorial Event?” … So looks like that could be the first UK venue lined up! Xx
In case y’all are wondering, The Rochester Cathedral is the second oldest cathedral in the U.K., founded in 604 A.D. I’ve already reserved Lucy’s guest room cause y’all know I need to go.
~ New Provenance Forms have been mailed to everyone, and they are being returned quite promptly – thank you for doing that so we can continue to move forward. Piecers are ready for more blocks to piece, and Quilters are ready for more tops to quilt.
~ I realized that I had scanned some of the blocks at a mere 50 dpi instead of 300 dpi, SO I will be spending 2-3 days rescanning each of the blocks at the higher dpi.
~ Mother’s church group closed out the year with a block-making party, – and they sent all their leftover fabric. And as if that’s not enough, there are rumblings of more block parties being planned.
~ The mail continues to come in by the arm full, delighting the local post mistresses, The Engineer, and moi, so keep it coming.
And remember: Kitty Sorgen has set us a new goal: 2000 blocks in my hands by July 4, 2016, so make and mail, y’all. Make and mail.
This happened: I became a grandmother
which means that I’ve been away from the studio
for over two weeks
which means that the updates are few.
Just like the blog posts have been
because I am forced to face up to the fact
once again
that I am not Wonder Woman.
But here’s what I’ve got:
WEEK 13 (MAY 9-15, 2016)
~ By week’s end, I’ve heard from people in 63 different countries.
~ No update on block count on account of I haven’t been there to receive them.
~ I tripped over devised a shortcut in the cataloguing system, which shaved 12-14 minutes off the processing time for each block. This is Big, y’all.
~ The First Quilt Top of The 70273 Project was handed off from Piecer, Kitty Sorgen to Quilter, MJ Kinman. – two extremely beautiful, talented, generous, kickass women got to meet in a face-to-face handoff. This is Big, too, y’all. Just think: 13 weeks after launching The 70273 Project, we have our first quilt!
~ And I came upon this quote, which seems quite appropriate to The 70273 Project: “Every work of art is conceived at a sacred time and is born in a favorable moment, often without the artist noticing, out of a profound need in his heart.” —Carl Gustav Carus (1789–1869)
WEEK 14 (MAY 16-22,2016)
~ News continues to spread: by week’s end I’ve heard from people in 66 different countries.
~ Spied this blog post penned by Lori East. Thank you, Lori – for the blocks, the post, and the fun!
~ While I waited on Calder Ray (my new grandson) to come out and play, I mailed out a new Provenance Form and SASE to everybody who needs one and got caught up with the cataloguing.
~ Kitty Sorgen taught a quilting workshop last weekend, and she took along pre-cut blocks, Provenance Forms, and red fabric to tell folks about The 70273 Project during their lunch break and offer them a chance to make with one hand while eating with the other. She never misses an opportunity to get the word out, that Kitty.
~ Faye Cook, our 70273 Project Ambassador in Australia, reports that she is sending information on The 70273 Project to embroidery guilds, quilting guilds, and some Australian craft magazines. She has a parcel full of blocks from a local quilting group, and she’s making up packages for some schools for people with special needs so they can join in.
~ Lucy Iles Horner, a talented photographer, writer, and more, is busy stitching, spreading the word, and gathering blocks from all corners of the UK.
~ Having met her previous goal of 1,000 blocks by June 1 (We have 1170 as of May 8, 2016.), Kitty Sorgen, our Coxswain (and more), set a new goal: 2000 blocks in my hands by July 4, 2016. As Kitty says, Ready . . . Set . . . SEW!
On we grow and on we sew!
. . . but once a day,
I utter a big, fat, juicy Thank you
to the Sweet Spirit of Surprise
for the woman who birthed me, Ada (left)
and the woman who continues to help raise me, Helen (right)
for my grandmother, Maude
for my grandmother, Katie Belle
for my great grandmother, Ever Leila
(Isn’t that a fabulous name?)
the woman who raised my husband and raised him Right, Mary
and for the people who made me a Mother.
I am luckier than I deserve.
Here are the highlights of the 12th week of The 70273 Project:
Because I was away the week before,
last week found me with a backlog of scanning.
Milestone blocks scanned this week include:
Block 600, a 3.5″ x 6.5″ (9 cm x 16.5 cm) beauty made by Laurie Dunn
Block 700, a 9.5″ x 12.5″ (24.2 cm x 31.8 cm) made by 5 year old Chloe Nycz
a student at Blanchard Valley School
Block 800, a 9.5″ x 12.5″ (24.2 cm x 31.8 cm) beauty made by Brenda Shimshick
Block 900, a 3.5″ x 6.5″ 9 cm x 16.5 cm) beauty made by Janet Hartje
Block 1000, a 3.5″ x 6.5″ (9 cm x 16.8 cm) beauty made by Glenda Williams
Because it occurs to me that maybe I ought to be
counting each 100th block ending with #73, here’s
Block 1073, a 9.5″ x 12.5″ (24.2 cm x 31.9 cm) beauty made by Glenda Williams.
And because my head kinda hurts to think in terms of anything
but hundreds, here’s Block #1100,
a 9.5″ x 12.5″ (24.2 cm x 31.8 cm) beauty made by
– wait for it –
Glenda Williams.
(She sent me a box filled with 160 blocks.
so of course she hit several milestones.
I’ll tell you more about her soon.)
Give yourselves a big, fat standing ovation, y’all.
You’ve certainly earned it.
~~~~~~~
Chloe Grice continues to help me
make The 70273 Project more
internationally friendly.
This week, she translated the block sizes
into cm’s for me, and I’m busy
adding it everywhere block sizes are mentioned.
3.5″x 6.5″ = 9 cm x 16.5 cm
6.5″ x 9.5″ = 16.5 cm x 24.2 cm
9.5″ x 12.5″ = 24.2 cm x 31.8 cm
Thank you, Chloe!
~~~~~~~
Several weeks ago, I received a private message
from Beth Thrift, an artist I had the pleasure of meeting in the waiting room
at a local hospital as I sat with my friend, April Harrison.
Beth sent an email to a local magazine, The Laurel Asheville,
and Leah, one of the writers on staff, emailed me by email.
The article came out last week with the release of
the May issue. Note: it’s on page 111.
Thank you Beth, and thank you Leah.
~~~~~~~
I have been contacted by people in 63 different countries.
~~~~~~~
Last but not least,
a Major Happening of last week:
Let’s all give a rousing exclamation of glee to say Thank you to
the talented one called Kitty Sorgen who received
the bundles of blocks
then promptly (and very quickly) pieced
The First Quilt Top for The 70273 Project!
And that’s not all.
This week finds Kitty delivering the quilt top
and backing fabric to MJ Kinman
who will quilt it.
This quilt top is exactly what I envisioned
since that night in late January
when the idea came and whispered in my ear.
Can you imagine standing in the presence of 800+ of these quilts?
Thank you Kitty and MJ.
Thank you big.
I think this calls for cupcakes, y’all.
With sprinkles.
~~~~~~~
So keep making those blocks
and visiting the Facebook Page for updates
and posting in the Facebook Group to let us know what you’re doing
and reading the blog to seep up with all that’s happening
with The 70273 Project.
This is what last week looked like.
It’s everything we needed to take down the mountain
to tend to everything that needing tending.
There was real estate stuff, yard work,
business calls, family get-togethers,
eye exams, meetings, and much, much more.
Because we weren’t home to receive mail for The 70273 Project,
I have no new block count for you,
but don’t think that because this cat was away,
The 70273 Project sat languishing
and watching the mice play.
Several days were devoted to getting the word out,
and I pulled a couple of all-nighters
to get caught up with processing the blocks
I have in hand.
Plus – drum roll, please – I sent the first bundle
of blocks to the kind and talented one called Kitty Sorgen
who offered to piece our first quilt top.
The day before we headed down the mountain,
The Engineer and I got our grandparents’ shot.
Got it right there in the middle of aisle 6
with the paper towels, dog food,
and bathroom cleaning supplies.
It was a week filled with hugging, patting, and lugging,
and I want y’all to know that my arm still hurts
over a week later,
and the knot is now kinda’ spreading across my arm.
Monday found me at my friend Mari Ann’s house,
sitting on her beautiful back porch
with a fantastic group of crazy creative women,
listening to a funny, personable Southern man
named Clifford Brooks III read his poems to us.
I haven’t showered since this hug.
And he promised to put an ad for The 70273 Project in his little magazine.
Wednesday found me lunching with
my Tiger Girls, the gals I
graduated from high school with.
(And I’ll have you know that not a one of them
was social promoted.)
Dianna (first one on the right)
is gonna’ host a block-making party in June.
You can bet your sweet patootey that not a one of these gals
will be set loose with a pair of scissors.
On Thursday morning, I told the members of
Mother’s church circle group about The 70273 Project. They’re going to spend their last meeting of the year making blocks.
This is some of the gals, and we’re holding
In Our Own Language 1:1, the first
of Nancy’s drawings I ever stitched.
That’s my mother there on the far right, holding the book.
Just to her left is Carol, who’s 95 years young.
Yes, really.
Saturday found us up early to go get cat food for Mother’s boys
then heading over to the World War II Heritage Days
where we had a table set up for The 70273 Project.
We had a fantastic location, a fabulous day, and
made lots of new friends. Here are a few of them . . .
This is Marissa Shenkle. She trains service dogs.
Barbara-Jean Buckley
Emma Banze made her block in honor of her Uncle Mark.
L to R: Chase Hughes, Adalee Beasley, and Michelle Hughes
Michelle once taught special ed . . . until she was
required to teach a curriculum based on the
chronological age of her students instead of their abilities.
Michelle Thaxton
Karissa McCoy
Meet Dan Klein. He was serving his country in Europe in 1940.
Joanna Griffin
Ross Greene, who recently finished writing a book
called A Fortress and a Legacy.
Ross spent 6.5 years researching this book, crafted around
a bundle of letters his uncle wrote home in World War II.
I hope you get a chance to meet Ross and read his book.
He’s a man who isn’t afraid to dream big.
I like that.
Brittany Rutledge
Steve Ulman
Thomas Eastin
Kevin Barton
and
Zachary Freeman,
a most delightful young man
who happened by the table on his own
and said, “Tell me about The 70273 Project.)
I tell y’all what: our future is in good hands
with Zach. Real good hands.
Saturday culminated in a dinner dance
where we were lucky enough to hear
The Freedom Belles perform.
Our daughter, Alison, formed The Freedom Belles
several years ago, and she says they have the best job in the world:
entertaining veterans.
Their motto? Let freedom sing.
going L to R that’s
Missy Gossett, Renee Cooper, and Alison Chambers.
If y’all need some entertainment for a special event,
hire them cause they’ll make you look good,
Real good.
I promise.
All in all it was a good week, a fine week, an exhilarating week
(though this introvert needed a little quiet time for a couple of days).
We met a lot of people and introduced them to The 70273 Project,
and I want y’all to know that not a single person we met
had ever heard of the T4 Program.
After the dinner dance, The Engineer and I
exited stage left, took my mother home,
loaded the truck, then drove on back up the mountain.
We came close to being seriously injured or killed
by some crazy driver who careened back and forth
across multiple lanes of traffic on I-85 in Atlanta.
It happened in maybe 3 seconds (though while it was happening,
time slowed down to a crawl),
and for the next hour or so, two thoughts and a question
kept running through my head:
Thank you to The Engineer for skills maneuvering us
so that the crazy driver missed us by the 3″ necessary
to keep us out of harm’s way
and
Thank you to whichever angel was riding shotgun that night
and
If I’d’ve died, who would take over The 70273 Project
and see it through?
We landed back atop the mountain around 2 a.m.,
slept till 5:30, then got up and headed over to Hendersonville
to fetch our new bees.
We hope they’ll be happy here.
And that, y’all, is how we spent week 11 of The 70273 Project.
This work by Jeanne Hewell-Chambers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.TheBarefootHeart.com.
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