Around the World Blog Hop

Hi! My name is Greta. I was tagged for the Around the World Blog Hop by Zenia at A Quilted Passion. Thanks for the tag Zenia--and thanks for making the trip across two time zones to come visit me here in Iowa this past weekend! If you haven't already visited her blog spot, be sure to do so.

The Around the World Blog Hop is kind of like a chain letter except it's w/blogs on the internet.  It's a great opportunity to meet and learn about other bloggers.  When tagged, the tag-ee has to acknowledge who tagged them, answer 4 questions and then tag 1-3 different bloggers. 

So here goes...

What am I working on?
The biggest excitement around here is last week's purchase of a Go! Baby Accuquilt Cutter. The dies I chose were an equilateral triangle and a diamond, which I thought would be a star quilt (45-degree) diamond, but which turned out to be a tumbling block (60-degree) diamond. Three-way hexie seams, here we come!

Instead of tumbling blocks and hexies, however, I decided to start off by using the diamond shapes in an Arkansas Traveler's block. This one is 17 x 17". Imagine dozens of these pieced together into a large bed quilt.

The other excitement is getting back in touch with my niece in California. Her 8th birthday is approaching, and while our families have been on a 2-yr planned hiatus to repair wounded feelings (is your family this way?), I am thrilled to celebrate her October 14 birthday with a creation from my sewing room.

Of course, no girly outfit is complete without one for her doll, so today I will be sewing up this pattern in the same fabric. (As I type, I am tea-dying the eyelet to match the cream petticoat, as I did for my niece's skirt.)

How could you characterize my work?
I'm mostly inspired by nature and color; for instance, the "Arkansas Traveler" block above reminds me of the beautiful blues, browns and grays of an Iowa winter. I've inherited a lot of my fabrics from my mother or for projects like the 9/11 Quilt-In (In 2002 and 2003 we sent quilts to war refugees in Afghanistan as a kind of protest of the militant patriotism that developed around that date.) My mom is a fabric artist, so I have the built-in imperative to be original and not follow the trends too closely. Then again, I love the new "maker" movements as expressed in both fabrics and foods and have contributed to it by making double-sided aprons for my local natural foods coop, under my Locally Stitched label:

Why do I write/create what I do?
I call my blog "Material Detachment" because I had tons of fabric in my sewing room that I wanted to detach from / create with in a mindful way. Part of these were scraps from apron-making, part other people's "white elephants". So I got started a year ago. I enjoy the attention I get from blogging, since my regular paid work (editing scientific manuscripts) as well as most of my hobbies are solitary. Last year I was also foster parenting, and it was great to have a way to share that journey with readers.

How does my writing/creative process work?
I typically load up my eyeballs on Pinterest (you can follow my Patchwork board here), keeping in mind where my quilts are destined and what fabrics I will use, then choose a pattern or idea and figure out how to make it, either from other blogs or just by looking. I like to meditate on the person for whom I am making something as I plan and design. Then, during the long middle of making, I listen to books on tape (my latest is Lawrence in Arabia, whew!). Some of my quilts have interesting stories, like this one:

I hope you enjoy your visit to my blog and find inspiration for your own creative process.

Now, hop on over to visit this quilter in Great Britain!

Lisa at The Quilting Bird