Block #51 for Jack G.

Tonight I will dedicate this block to my first boss. Right after graduating, Mickey (my bestie) and I joined a consulting firm together. After a 10 week training course, I was staffed out at a company where I met Jack G and Mickey joined me a few months later out there. While Jack didn’t sign my pay checks, he was pretty much my boss for a year.

For a first job out of school, I could not have gotten any luckier. I got to work on a team of people who had been in the industry for more than 25 years. They took me in and treated me as if I was one of their own. I was included in the lunch bunch and learned how to work hard and have fun at the same time. Most importantly, they taught me how to be a professional and the importance of experience. For many years after, I made it my personal mission to get Jack to come work for whatever company I was at so he could be my boss again. Unfortunately, I never succeeded.

A Short Funny Story

I have so many fond memories of this time in my life, it was hard to pick just one story. But we will go with “A 2 Bowler”. The lunch bunch occasionally went to a Mongolian Bar-B-Q place. For those of you who don’t know, here is the way it worked: They gave you one bowl and you stuffed it full of vegetables, raw meat, and noodles from a weird salad bar. At this place, they cooked it in front of you on a huge round table. Jack’s goal was to pack so much in the one bowl that he could get two bowls out of it when they cooked it up; A 2 Bowler. And he did… a few times if I recall correctly. My aversion to vegetables usually lead to a quarter bowler.

Credits:
My husband picked these fabrics. I forgot to give him credit last night and he brought this to my attention.

Date Made: February 20, 2015
Block #51
Days on Project: 51
Blocks Made: 53
Husband’s Picks: #19

For Jack G.

Block #50 for Les S.

I decided to keep going down the bosses route for this week. This bird is dedicated to my third boss at my current company. Les was my boss for less than a year right before he retired. He was a great boss. Les was the first person to convince me that I am an introvert. And, more importantly, that it was OK to be one. Les was into team building based on strengths and really understanding how we work based on our personalities. Past theories of around bettering yourself centered around  understanding your weaknesses and purposely striving to be stronger in those areas. This theory was the opposite. It focused on identifying your strengths and ensuring that the team you are working on has a good mix of different strengths. Do what you are good at, basically. I loved having these conversations with Les. I am a very task oriented person so I would rarely stop to think on these types of things. He had us go through a few different personality types of exercises and thanks to Les I now know the following about myself:

• I am a black hat thinker
• I am an influencer and an equalizer
• I am a blue red
• I am an introvert

Les is living the good life now. He retired, sold his house, car, everything and moved to the coast. I imagine he is traveling and living it up. We got him a years subscription to a beer of the month club so I would like to think we are helping out with that…

Credits
My husband picked these fabrics.

Date Made: February 19, 2015
Block #50
Days on Project: 50
Blocks Made: 52
Husband’s Picks: #18

For Les S.

Block #49 for Carl E.

Recognize this one? Yep it has finally happened. I gave up and used a test block as a real block. I had a bad day, an I would probably sew my finger to the bird if I tried to make a block tonight. So I am phoning it in….

Now, please don’t think this is any reflection on who it is dedicated to. It’s still a pretty cool looking bird. This one is dedicated to Carl E. Carl was my second boss at my current job. And I thought of him tonight because Carl is a car guy. The majority of the bad day today was me getting into an accident and messing up my car. I LOVE MY CAR. It was a splurge. It was pretty and fun to drive and now it is foo-barred. A few months ago his car baby was foo-barred as well. I just remember thinking when it happened, OMG I would be so sad. And now, I am… I will take it to get it fixed tomorrow and be in a rental for awhile. But I fear it will never be the same. Carl also helped me pick out this car. 😦

So, another thing about Carl, and why he really made the list, is that I am in awe of his mad skills. Not only can he do anything with a car, but he does all the things around his house that me and my husband would never try to do on our own. And… He does them well. And… He enjoys it. And… He saves a ton of money. If we tried to put in our own floors, for example, it would look awful, we would probably loose at least one finger, and by the end of it there would be more than a few tears shed. Then we would have to pay even more to have someone come in and fix it. Maybe we’re not that bad. Maybe it’s just the bad day talking…

And I would elaborate more on Carl’s skills, but my husband wants to go fill up the bird feeder. At 9:00. In the Dark. In the Cold. (FYI – He had a bad day too)

Date Made: December 28th, 2014  (being honest)
Block #49
Days on Project: 49
Blocks Made: 51

For Carl E.

Block #48 for David S.

This block is dedicated to David S. David was my first boss at my current job and he is also an excellent photographer. I had the opportunity to travel with him a couple times and he made me better photographer as well. He might not have approved of my camera choice but he did teach me quite a bit.

David goes on a lot of photography trips and I am extremely jealous of how well traveled he is. I have a “David Scarbrough” original from Iceland and I love it. In our last house we had it hanging in the dining room and in this house we will have it over the fireplace.

Fireplace Photo

And… I already have my eye on another one for the house…

Check out the rest of his photos here:

David’s Galleries

Date Made: February 17th, 2015  
Block #48
Days on Project: 48
Blocks Made: 51

For David S.

Block #47 for Beth B.

The block is dedicated to my quilty friend Beth. I met Beth at a now defunct appliqué society. The best thing about Beth – She’s my age! Well, close enough… I have plenty of quilting friends that are older and I love them dearly. But most of them are retired. And, let me tell you, it is depressing to see how quickly they are turning out projects now when I could go for months without sewing. Beth has a full time job too so she can commiserate with me. Both of us are in our 30’s, both in “man’s world” type of professions (her more so than me), and we both love to quilt. So a Saturday lunch can, and did, turn into a 2-3 hour event.

I want to be her when I grow up…

Because… Beth is an amazing hand quilter. Yes folks, I said HAND quilter. I am in awe of her dedication to hand quilting very large projects. I want to do that and she has inspired me to start practicing on some smaller projects but I have a long way to go to get to her level.

and I’m a little bit jealous of her…

Because… Her mom is a quilter too! Like me, she has a pretty young mom and they both quilt. They are freakin’ adorable together (she will kill me for saying that). My mother is not a quilter but I know that if we lived closer to each other we would sew together and I would convince her to become a quilter too. There is plenty of time to change that situation…

Date Made: February 14th, 2015  
Block #47
Days on Project: 47
Blocks Made: 50

For Beth B.

Block #46 For Jennifer X.

The block is dedicated to another long lost friend. Jennifer X. was my first college buddy. We lived on the same floor and hung out all the time. She made me coffee in the morning before my early classes and her grandmother would send me care packages as if I was her own. We lost touch after I got married and moved away but I still think of her often.

Quick Funny Story

Jennifer had a long time boyfriend, they were high school sweethearts. Her parents did not approve and forbid her from seeing him. I didn’t know this until later but when we would go home for holidays, she would tell her parents she was going home with me. When in reality she was going home to her grandmother, with him. She even told her parents she had met a guy at school and was dating him to throw them off her tracks. When listening to the description of this fake boyfriend, I realized she was describing my fiancé (and later husband). She didn’t even change his name, where he was from or what he looked like. To this day, I cannot believe her grandmother was in on it. In the end, they got married, had babies and lived happily ever after (I hope). So I guess her family made peace with her choice in guys.

Date Made: February 14th, 2015  
Block #46
Days on Project: 46
Blocks Made: 50

For Jennifer X.

Block #45 For Jay Kay

Jay Kay was on my mind today, not only because Kristen mentioned her at lunch, but because my husband and I have had a tradition of getting crawfish on Valentines day. And every year, I get a text from Jay Kay in March or April reminding me that it is time to get some crawfish. So it went from Valentines–>Crawfish–>JayKay–>Bird

However, at 9 bucks a pound, we decided to wait until later in the season.

Quick Funny Story

So I have to admit, I had a little help with this one. I wanted to make this bird for her, my crawfish buddy, but I couldn’t think of a good funny story. So I texted Kristen to which she replied “Lamp Commander, Duh”. And I still couldn’t remember the whole story properly! So while this is a true story, I can’t promise I haven’t taken some poetic license due to my failing memory.

We met Jay Kay in that same church home team. One night we were playing with Clay’s newest toy, “The Lamp Commander”. The purpose behind this stroke of genius is that you could turn on a lap without touching it just by giving it a command. Clearly clapping to turn something on and off was just not good enough for the inventors of this fabulous device. You would plug your lamp into it and the clearly say “Lamp Commander” to get it’s attention and then “Lights On/Off”. We all took turns with this, but one person had some difficulty with the Lamp Commander. That sucker would not listen to Jay Kay for anything. Jay Kay had a very strong West Texas accent and the Lamp Commander was most likely a Yankee.

In preparation for this post, I looked it up. There is a youtube video for it. The main actor is a blind man who was complaining that he always had difficulty finding the light switch because he is blind. Now, his life is so much better because  he has The Lamp Commander. Huh?

Date Made: February 14th, 2015  
Block #45
Days on Project: 45
Blocks Made: 50

For Jay Kay

Block #44 for Jeanie M.

This bird goes to another one of those long lost friends, Jeanie M. I have Jeanie M. to thank for my entire career path. When we moved down here I was still in college. I changed my major because I was certain I wanted the glamorous life of a pharmacist. After a couple semesters I left my campus job paying 7 bucks an hour and traded it for 5.25 an hour just so I could get some hands on experience in a pharmacy. Yeah… I wasn’t too bright.

The pharmacy was awful. Sick people are mean. Within two weeks I was begging them to let me go back to being a cashier up front. I did meet some great people there. One of them was my manager Jeanie M.  She would often let me learn her duties and help out when she was on break. I remember thinking “I can do that”. So I switched majors and went to business school. In my first semester I took a programming course  and that was all she wrote. I had found my future career and it didn’t involve being a store manager at a pharmacy. So in retrospect, I seriously owe her. Because, as I mentioned before, sick people are mean.

I also owe my current friends to Jeanie, which is ironic because Jeanie and I no longer even know each other. Jeanie invited me to go to church with her one Sunday and a few years later we joined Kristen’s home team at church. 10 years later, I can’t imagine not having these people in my life. I owe my friends, and now neighbors, to Jeanie.

Quick Funny Story

When Jeanie was pregnant with her son, her husband became very ill with pancreatitis. He was in the hospital recovering but she didn’t want to miss lamaze class and needed a partner. It was awkward and I wasn’t ready for the video…

Date Made: February 13th, 2015  
Block #44
Days on Project: 44
Blocks Made: 47

For Jeanie M.

Block #43 For Kristi S.

Why Am I Doing This?

I am starting to get questions about the birds. People at work ask me how long they take to make and say things like “you mean you HAVE to make one a day all year??” as if it is a homework assignment that I am being graded on. Obviously, this is my choice and its not always easy. So I thought I would take a few minutes tonight to elaborate on why I am doing this.

About a year ago I stumbled across the blog “A Thousand Quilted Cranes”. The writer of this blog was inspired by Margaret Rolfe’s peace quilt and dedicating each crane to a person that as affected his life either negatively or positively.

Immediately I wanted to do it too, mostly because the crane was an amazing pattern and I thought the idea was cool. At the time, it was only a cool idea. I never started the project; I just didn’t have enough passion for it. Then this year at quilt festival I was in a class and recognized someone from a previous festival class. I noticed she was always working during class so I asked where she worked. She worked at a BIG company and I know someone at that company, Daniel, so I mentioned him. Turns out, they were buddies and I thought “small world”. During our conversation, I mentioned that I really hadn’t seen him in several years; that we used to work together but we had both moved on. She made a comment that really stuck with me, it was something about friends flying in and out of your life, I can’t remember the phrase exactly, it was something about “seasons” maybe.

While Daniel and I were friends and he is awesome, we were never “tight”. But, it still got me thinking about all of the people I was once very close to and how I don’t even know most of them anymore. Some of them I miss and think about often. All of them have shaped me in some way. That is how I found the passion for this project. I wanted to bring back the memories of those those long lost friends and honor the current ones as well. Tonight’s block is dedicated to one of those.

A Short Story

I met Kristi S. when I moved to “The Big City”. She was a friend of my husbands friend. She was my very first friend down here. She was going to the same college as me and we started out as carpool buddies. It was nice to have company and help navigating freeways. My husband worked offshore and she was single so we became friends and hung out together all the time. She even went home with me once at Thanksgiving and slept through one of those crazy earthquakes. She was my lifeline here, and I can’t believe that I have no clue where she is now. How can you be in someone’s wedding and then 15 years later, you don’t even know how to get ahold of them.

Are people really only in our lives for a season? Is there some sort of limit to how many close friends you can manage at one time, and socially, the herd gets thinned as it needs to? I have no clue.

Date Made: February 12th, 2015  
Block #43
Days on Project: 43
Blocks Made: 46

For Kristi S.

Block #42 For Doris S

Tonight’s block is dedicated to Angela’s mom Doris. Doris was a second mom to me growing up. We were neighbors, but honestly we were family. One of my earliest memories was of her youngest son being born. I remember we were in grade school and I found out on the playground. I think mom and dad picked up Angela and her sister and they stayed with us until they could go up to the hospital (but that part is a bit fuzzy). But it’s the emotion I remember the best; the joy and excitement of a new baby! I think I was in 3rd grade…maybe.

A Short Story

We have already established that I ate at Doris’s house often (see last night’s post). As I got older, I often hung out with Doris even if the kids weren’t home. I remember one day we had an earthquake while I was over there. It wasn’t a major earthquake, but we didn’t have them that often so when we did, it was cool. The house started shaking and Doris yelled “Paula Sue, get under the table”. The oven door popped open and scared the crap out of me (not literally). But that was OK, because I was safe under the table. Doris, however, never got up out of  her chair. I remember thinking “Why in the world didn’t she take cover?? She could have been hurt!!”.

After the earthquake we went outside, I am pretty sure I ran outside, to see if the neighbors felt it. Our neighbors were sitting in lawn chairs in their front yard the whole time and they didn’t feel a thing. The big scary earthquake that caused the oven door to pop open wasn’t even strong enough to be felt unless you were inside of something, like a house, to notice the shaking. So I guess she was justified staying comfortable while I was crouched on the floor under a table.

Date Made: February 11th, 2015  
Block #42
Days on Project: 42
Blocks Made: 45

For Doris