Back in this post I told you about my cousin Melissa (Missy to me!) and her husband Derek and how as newlyweds they had to face the unthinkable. Derek went on his final journey on January 20, 2011. Missy has been unbelievably strong throughout all of this. Like I said before, she is an old soul, I really admire her.

Shortly after he passed she contacted me via Facebook and asked if I made quilts. She had an idea and wanted help. I immediately, without hesitation offered my services in whatever way I could. Her idea was to make a quilt using Derek’s old dress shirts. She had some images of modern quilts she had seen and liked. She left the rest up to me. I told her to pack them up along with any other accent fabric and backing fabric she wanted used and I’d take  it from there.

The box of fabric and shirts arrived right after our big snow storm last week. I laundered the new fabrics and started gestating ideas. Today is Valentine’s Day, the day for lovers (and angry, cynical, single people, but that is another post.) What better day to get started on this very special project? I thought I’d make a few test squares and post a picture on Facebook for Missy to see and get her reaction. Of course in my usual style, one or two test squares became 4 or 5. But now I have an idea of how to proceed.

There are strange and interesting things outside of the cutting and sewing that are happening while I’m working on this project. I never met Derek in person, never even had an online conversation with him. All I know of him has come from Missy’s posts and stories shared of their life together. But I feel him as I work on this project. Back when we were first married I used to iron Steve’s dress shirts for him every week. It may sound gross but when you iron a person’s shirt, you can smell them in the steam. I don’t mean to say that Missy sent me funky shirts. Not at all, but they do hold an essence of Derek. I think that is kind of the idea of the quilt.

Also when I’m working I usually listen to my iPod. Sometimes I listen to various podcasts and sometimes music. Today I was in a My Chemical Romance mood. At first songs from their Welcome to the Black Parade album didn’t seem at all appropriate, and a little creepy and weird.

But then there was this one:

To carry on
We’ll carry on
And though you’re dead and gone believe me
Your memory will carry on
We’ll carry on
And though you’re broken and defeated
Your weary widow marches

On and on….

Or from my favorite MCR song, Famous Last Words:

‘Cause I see you lying next to me
With words I thought I’d never speak
Awake and unafraid
Asleep or dead
I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey if you stay, I’ll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home

Don’t know if Derek or Missy were/are MCR fans but someone was sending me a message. I’m going to try to continue to post progress, images and impressions as I work on this project.

Edited to add: I’m calling this quilt the “I’ve got your back” quilt. Partly for the play on words because it is made out of shirts and because I have the feeling that Missy and Derek really did have eachother’s backs.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

My friend Erin has a great blog: Damknit. Not only does it have one of the most creative and snarky names in craft blog-land but is also a fun read. Erin and I “met” online on a scrapbooking website eons ago. It was because of her that I rediscovered my knitting bug and started blogging and podcasting (briefly!)

She went from being a beginner knitter to spinning her own yarn in record time. She is pretty much self-taught in all her various craft forms. You should see her mad crochet skills! Recently she decided that she wanted to advance her spinning skills and applied for a scholarship to attend SOAR this fall in Oregon. She needed reference letters and I was more than happy to lend a good word or twenty to help her achieve this goal. I was not surprised in the least when she won one of the coveted spots. The thing is is that she lives in Arizona. As I mentioned, SOAR takes place in Oregon. Not exactly right next door.

You see Erin works really hard waiting tables to help support her family. She doesn’t make a lot of money so buying a round trip plane ticket is a real luxury. But in usual Erin style she looked at the problem and set a goal to solve it. She scored a load of decorator samples at a local thrift shop and set to designing an awesome needle holder for interchangeable needle sets. She has been working her fingers and sewing machine to the bone making these and listing them on her etsy shop. All proceeds from the sales will go toward purchasing her plane ticket.

I’m thinking I may just need to invest in a set of Addi Clicks just to have an excuse to buy one of these for myself. Looking at them I think they’d also work great for all those miscellaneous double point sets I have rolling around in the bottom of my knitting bag too. If you have a need for a small, compact, CUTE! needle case this would be the perfect solution. Go now. Buy one, or five!

I have a kind of very eclectic post forming in my brain right now. So forgive me if it goes off campus a tad.

First off, yes Virginia, there will be a podcast this week. Maybe if I get up early enough tomorrow (read: before children are awake but after Mr. Mess leaves for work) I’ll get something recorded. I have a WHOLE PAGE OF NOTES just itching to become random stream of conciousness ramblings from me, your resident Whack-a-Do.

I may even get my shit together enough to take a photo or two of some of my WIPs. Be still your beating heart I know…

I have about 6″ of the lily of the valley shawl and I cast on tonight a bright red shrug from the Lace Styles book, bite me, I don’t have it in front of me and I don’t remember the name. But trust me, it’s cute.

Today Mini-Me and I went to Woodfield Mall to shop for her upcoming trip to NYC. She leaves uber-early Saturday. The main reason we went to Woodfield is because there is a Torrid store there. Most shopping trips with S and I end in tears and a lot of anger and frustration. Why? Because even though the American population and mainly teens are growing increasingly “Plus-sized” the retailers aren’t following the trend. But Torrid rocks. They understand that even the big girls want to look cute/sexy/NORMAL and cater to that reality.

A typical shopping trip with her and I nets one or two pairs of jeans and maybe a half dozen XXL t-shirts that are shapeless and baggy. Today’s trip netted two pair of jeans, two mini-skirts that flatter a bigger girl (one is a black, red, and white plaid pleated one that is SOOOOOoooo cute I covet it), over a dozen shirts that pay homage to a girls’ curves without looking like she’s wearing her dad’s shirts or making her look like a fat slut, one pair of long shorts and a swim suit top that covers the “girls” and the muffins. I even found a cute sundress for me.

On the subject of “big girls”; We just watched Dreamgirls. I knew it was a good movie. I knew that for the most part, I’d like this movie. I was a BIG fan of Jennifer Hudson’s when she was on American Idol and wanted to shove something down Simon Cowell’s gullet whenever he refered to her weight being the reason she couldn’t be an American Idol. But I had no idea that I would end up LOVING this movie. I’m a native Michigander but am far from a Detroiter yet the history of Motown, Barry Gordy, and all that is still a part of my history on some cellular level I don’t quite understand. After the last credit rolled I was sitting there wanting to stand up and dance, sit there and cry, jump up and cheer for Effie/Florence Ballard, and sing my ever-loving lungs out.

I’ll always remember when Camryn Mannheim won an Emmy for her role on Boston Legal. In her acceptance speach she dedicated her award by saying, “this is for all the fat girls out there!” When JHu one her Oscar she dedicated to all the Florence Ballard’s of the world. Amen, sister, amen.

With all these thoughts in my head tonight I sat down to write a post and also checked my bloglines. There is a blog that I’ve been meaning to share with y’all for a while but just never did (sue me!) These bitches are hilarious and I want to adopt them as my own personal gay posse. But lo and behold, today’s entry was about another BIG GIRL that engenders a lively debate. Interestingly enough, I’ve also been debating and considering writing about her and THE SHOW for a little while. I am NOT a fan and I haven’t watched this morning talk show for a number of years because of the general direction that the attitude of the show has taken. I liked it alright at the begining and thought it might have an interesting hook. But when it became personality driven it lost me. (Right around the time I became disillusioned with the BIG O. My feeling remains that SHE was added to the panel for ratings and ratings alone. The producers knew they were setting this whole thing up for a major trainwreck. They twisted the tracks and sat back and waited for the carnage to be tossed about. But the boys at Project Gay have an interesting point. She is what she is, and one must give her credit for staying true to that. Shame that the producers and Barbara W. didn’t realize what they were getting into when they sold their souls…or did they?