Is there anybody out there?

"Hey You! Out there in the cold. Getting lonely, getting old. Can you feel me?.....Don't help them to bury the light.  Don't give in without a fight."
                                                                         Pink Floyd, The Wall-1979

Strains of this classic Pink Floyd song have been going through my head as it seems so appropriate for my situation currently. I'm feeling lonely, old and in the dark...with respect to my writing anyway. I have been blogging for close to four years. I have certainly had my share of ups and downs and victories. Several of my articles have found publication beyond the boundaries of my blog. Which of course is a good thing. Yet, I am almost at the point of "throwing in the towel" and giving up. Although in the words of Pink Floyd: Don't give in without a fight.

So that is what I am here to do : fight and speak up for what I feel are injustices and things that can't possibly be just a "random series of events."  I do want to fight, I don't want to give up, so I am writing this particular blog to provide a confession of sorts, and a cleansing that....well... if nothing else it will clarify in my own mind events that happened in the wonderful world of blogging.  Besides, any good therapist will tell you it's not healthy to keep things bottled up inside.

When I first started blogging I only had one blog: this one. Then when I realized the volume of material I was generating and the diversity of topics I decided to open another blog with WordPress: travelingamericablog.com As per the title, it is about travel in the USA. I have had so much fun writing all the features and I still kept up with BOTH blogs on a variety of topics, but I always funneled the travel features to the WordPress blog. My followers grew and grew and I believe the more features I wrote, I also grew as a writer. When the number of my followers exceeded 200, I decided to try my hand at advertising on my blog and perhaps I could earn a few coins for my efforts. That's where the "fun" begins. 

 When I made the decision to allow advertising on my blog, I had exactly 217 followers and  I had formatted the blog to make it very user friendly. I occasionally got comments, and I like to think folks used my site to get travel information if they were considering a specific location. After accepting advertising on my site, I went several weeks without posting anything....then as soon as I did post an article, my followers dropped from 217 to 20 within two days!!  How could 197 people decide within  a 2 day period that they didn't like my articles?! It almost didn't seems possible! I accredit it to people not liking the new advertising aspect of my blog. In any case, I had an extensive dialogue with the "chat" feature from the folks at WordPress, trying so VERY hard to see if we could figure out what happened. WordPress refused to accept the notion that my followers left because of the advertising, but what else could it be? Did 197 people suddenly think my writing was crap? Whatever the case, I ended up feeling dejected, frustrated and a failure in the blogging world.

I still don't know what happened but I sometimes feel as if nobody is out there....won't anybody at least say HI!?  It would be nice to know that I am just not banging on these keys and all my words are drifting into the "cloud" never to be seen again by mortal man. **SIGH**

Writing is an art...and all artists suffer for their art.  So here I am again. It never is good to keep all that anger bottled up inside. Look at all the paintings  with anger splashed on the canvas. Look at angry music throughout the decades. Writing is no different; as a writer it feels good to spill that anger out. So without sounding too crass...  **ck the World, I'm going to keep on writing till I die.  JES

Capturing a Memory of Warmth

Apple River Quilt Guild (from their Facebook page)

When the wind and snow are blowing, what a perfect time to be indoors with an indoor hobby.  Also a hobby that creates a practical item to use to keep that winter chill at bay: Quilting. I "dabble" in the wonderful craft of quilting, but my end products pale in comparison to some of the quilts I have seen at shows and also from friends & family that also quilt. Like just about any project or passion one decides to pursue....practice makes perfect. I am now starting work on my 5th quilt, and with each quilt I make; they do get better.  Five quilts is not many, as I said I only "dabble" but it is something fun that I enjoy.

After moving to Wisconsin, I became familiar with a quilting group in my area; the Apple River Quilt Guild.  I went to a show last fall and was blown away by the talent there. But instead of getting intimidated and discouraged by my lack of talent, it was truly an inspiration. The ladies there are so helpful to fellow quilters, and also folks just admiring the artwork; they are more than happy to discuss techniques and pointers. This is a quilt that is displayed on their Facebook page....so beautiful! I have had the opportunity to attend a few of their shows and they always are an inspiration! It's interesting to note that according to the Wall Street Journal, there are an estimated 21 million quilters in the U.S. So I have plenty of company in this "little hobby".

Quilts have a proud and honored heritage starting in Colonial America and earlier. Even before the Civil War, quilts were made by abolitionists to help raise funds and also raise awareness to abolish slavery. During war time, quilts were made to give warmth and comfort to soldiers.  In conjunction to assist the Underground Railroad, some believe that abolitionists hung quilts on the clothesline designating a safe house or directions for runaway slaves for passage to the north. An Iowa rest-stop has a building dedicated to explaining this use of quilts and there are ceramic tiles in the building that resemble quilt squares of that era. Check out my blog on this topic that includes the information about the Underground Railroad: Click on this link:   Iowa Roadways: Uncommon sight on a Common journey.

T-shirt Quilt pattern

So that 5th quilt that I spoke of is a "t-shirt" quilt for my son. He provided several of his old favorite t-shirts that he wanted to have "memorialized" in quilt form. I did learn, luckily before I got started, that t-shirts have to be stabilized with interfacing to they won't stretch and you can more easily work with the fabric. 

My husband, always the Engineer.... formulated a layout on the computer for the quilt. He used Microsoft Excel and graphed it  creating a handy-dandy chart to help us figure out "what goes where." Here's a picture of the final layout.  Its a very cool design, albeit kind of intimidating, but we have a good start on it.  As you can see it's a joint endeavor, so it will be a gift to our son from both Mom & Dad. My husband said he may even assist with sewing and assembly work. Truly a family heirloom. Wish us luck and when it's done, I will post a photo here. (but not until after my son sees it, don't want to spoil the surprise of how the end result looks...hoping it will be awesome!)

So we have all the fabric and other materials purchased for constructing the quilt, but every time I go to a quilt (and or craft) store I just can't help but Oooo and Ahhh at all the pretty colors, patterns and wonderful possibilities floating inside my head. Made me really laugh when I saw this meme...I bet every quilter in the world can relate to this! Happy stitching! JES