Ode to Homemaking

If you have never visited Sugar City Journal, today is the day to head over there. What a great blog post about the sweet, simple joys found in hanging clothes out to dry. I think I might print it out and post it in my laundry room. Its just that sweet.

A "simple act of womanly duty."
There are lots of "womanly duties" that I often find myself grumbling about; the endless piles of laundry, the overflowing sink of dirty dishes, the always hungry family that is ready for something else to snack on before I can take two bites of my own meal, the kitchen floor that is always crumby and the dust and clutter that is everywhere.
But the often monotonous tasks that are required to keep my home and family running do have value. My own negative attitude towards my "womanly duties" don't let me appreciate them as I probably should.

Being a stay at home mom and homemaker is my chosen profession. I wouldn't have it any other way. There are simple joys that come from creating a happy home and raising beautiful children that you can't find anywhere else.

I loved how she said this one simple chore connected her with her own mother, how through its process she felt a sense of peace and order, how this 'pleasant labor' allowed her to escape from her often chaotic life. I can appreciate this as my own life has gotten more chaotic. With two loud and imaginative little kiddos ruling my life I find myself more often feeling the need to escape into some orderly housework.

During the two seconds when the kitchen is clean, I feel a real sense of pride in looking over my domain.
I love the happy, yummy sounds that come from my kids as they devour my freshly baked cookies.
When I faintly hear the hum of both the clothes washer and dish washer over the alternating shrieks and giggles of my little ones either throwing fits on the floor or using me as a jungle gym, I can inwardly smile and congratulate myself on mutitasking.
When I sit at the sewing machine trying to make something for our home or for a child to wear, I don't feel any sense of drudgery whatsoever. Instead I remember sitting on the floor near my mother's sewing machine as a child, playing with her pins, buttons or zippers.
When I go out and work in the yard I am again reminded of happy days spent outside with my family.
When I watch my son dig in the dirt or my daughter play with my fabric stash I smile, thinking of the simple joys they will have in creating homes for themselves someday.

Now, I am definitely not one to brag about my clean house or perfect organization. I'm more for creating a happy home than an immaculate home. But even so, I find that there is a great deal of housework involved in maintaining a happy home environment.

I am grateful for the 'pleasant labors' that I must perform. Everything worth having is worth working for. A happy home, a happy wife, a happy mommy is busy with many pleasant chores. :)


****Edited a few hours later: A little time has passed and I'm realizing how this makes me sound like some sort of clean freak or super homemaker or something like that. And those of you who have ever visited my home know that is far from the truth. What really happens is about once a week I get in a cleaning mood and have a burst of excited cleaning energy. The rest of the week we survive on the just the barest of essential 'womanly duties.' Just thought I should be really honest.

What kind of Quilter am I?

So just to be clear, I'm a completely old-fashioned, untrained (or atleast partly trained by friends and family and then self trained), scrapy, not into the latest and greatest tools, unprofessional type quilter. I love to see all the new patterns, fabric and methods for quilting but I don't feel like they are always neccessary to creating beautiful quilts.
I'm not a perfectionist. My points aren't always sharp and my seams sometimes don't match up. But I like it that way. I could either go crazy trying to create a 'perfect in every particular' quilt or I could enjoy the process.
I don't think there is one way to quilt. I like that there are many different ways to get the same thing done. Just look at all the different ways to make half-square triangles! I often laugh to myself when I hear others go on about the only way to do something.
I like to look at lots of other quilt blogs who amaze and inspire me. I'll readily admit that I'm quite inexperienced in comparison. I'm not going to pretend that I have much to add to the quilting world at this point. So this blog is going to be about my journey as a quilter; about me matching fabrics, trying new quilt blocks and enjoying trying my hand at designing a few patterns for myself.
I'm actually feeling a little bit nervous as I start this blog. I don't want the world to think I'm setting myself up as an expert. I'm not. I'm just a regular gal who likes to quilt.
I made the quilt up top a few years ago for a Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum's Aunt Grace contest. It was a fun one to design and make. I love 30s fabric. Its just so light and cheerful.

Hello

Hello. My name is Erica and I'm a blog-aholic. And also a quilt-aholic. I've been a quilt blog-lurker for several months now and decided it was about time to start one of my own.
I am a stay at home mom with a three year old and a 14 month old. I love it. But when they get too crazy and I think I'm about to completely lose it, I pull out my fabric stash. As a good quilting friend once put it, I 'quilt for my sanity.'

So maybe this blog will just be another outlet for me to express my quilt obession and no one else in the world will care to read it.

Or maybe I'll make a few blog friends and can get some input and inspiration via the world wide web.

Or maybe one day I'll be a rich and famous quilter who inspires other quilt-aholics, Oprah will call me up and want to do a special on me and my quilts, my quilts will hang in national museums, I'll author several quilt books and will be featured on the cover of Vogue, wrapped in quilts of my creation.

Um, I'm partly dreaming, mostly just being ridiculous. I have no desire to ever go on Oprah. Or apear on Vogue.

So here goes. My very own quilt blog.

And the name? Well, I didn't know what to put. But I like polka dots. Polka Dots on anything. But most especially polka dot fabric and quilts. So Polka Dot Quilts it is.