Thursday, May 31, 2007

Joanna, more to remember


If you read this blog I thank you for putting up with me posting my random posts about Joanna to my different yahoo groups so I can have all my rememberances in one place.
Re: quilt displayed at services
sorry if this does not belong here but i promise to be brief.joanna was a quilting student turned friend. and in her case myvery bestest friend i have ever had in my entire life! the quiltwas made at her request. the ladies at the quilt shop wanted tomake her a quilt but rather than making it for her and giving it toher they procrastinated and it never got done. so on May 5th,Joanna, her mother-in-law, myself, her friend from VA who flew inthat day to visit with her went to Rainbow's End to ... pick fabricfor her mother-in-laws very first quilt... pick fabrics for joanna'svery own quilt at her request made from my pattern magically fastcrazy blocks-the basic method (basically stack n slash with a coupleof twists to give you more flash for your sewing time) and it was torecreate one she had made the summer before as a housewarming giftfor a cousin who's house they stayed at on their dream trip toFinland. The quilt is very much like the original only queensized. my mother who lives not far from Rainbow's End in Dunedin,FL met us there and we had lunch at Jolli-Mons and laughed andgiggled and had the very best of times!On the following Saturday, a group of us got together at the LQS tosew the quilt top for her. We got 30 14 1/2" blocks sewn, trimmedand into a top (sans borders) in ONE day. there were three sewers:her mother-in-law linda who had NEVER sew anything on a machinebefore, the other student-turned-friend and her daughter(7 yo) asthey asked to help, and Caroline (one of the couple's card /gameplaying friends)myself and one person was sick with a cold so couldnot be around Joanna with her immune system so non-existent. webegan shortly before 10 am and finished at straight up 5 pm and agood day was had by all. That was the first time I saw Joanna astruly looking sick. her eyes were a horror movie yellow and herskin a green from her failing liver. :(that week i worked many 8-8 shifts and so on the friday of Mother'sDay weekend I sewed on the borders, pieced the backing, pieced thebatting (we wanted Thermore and that was not quite large enough).saturday i went to another friend's house and used her large formallivingroom floor to roll up and then spray baste all the layers with505 spray and fix. saturday and sunday i quilted it in straightlines until there were enough diagonals and horizontal and verticallines to hold it together with the thermore batting (up to 9" apart)more quilting would have been nice but time did not allow for it. idid quilt the 7" border in a 1" apart channel type quilting so itwould look nice once washed. you know, that old fashioned puckeringlook you get as if you had used a cotton batting? I put the findingto the front with the machine and considered it a night. My dh hadkept saying to me to take a break and I kept saying oh let me finishjust this part here then i'll take a quick break and come back atit. i never took a break except to eat dinner that night.monday, at work i whipped the binding down to the back by hand. Italked to Joanna several times that day and her one thing was "don'teven call if you finish it tonight please" at 7 pm that night ifinished the last stitches on the binding. at 8 pm i left work. at8:15 she was sitting in her special chair with the quilt over herand the biggest smile you could ever imagine on her face. pettingit and crooning over it. when i realised that she had a heating padon to relieve the ache in her belly (we are in florida it is HOT) welaid it on the bed. Joanna got up to see it laid out on the bed andgave me what was to be the last hug I would get from her.tuesday, I spoke with her several times and laughed and joked. wewere all about hte laughter. the last lengthy conversation i hadwith her that day at the end of the call she said okay bye, I saidbye she said Good bye. it took me until the next day to realise shesaid a true good bye to me that night. we rarely said bye when wehung up it was catch you tomorrow, let me know when you get out ofchemo... etc. but very rarely bye. i spoke with her very brieflythat night when she returned a call showing on the house phone whenshe was resting and her dh took the call. i had volunteered to ridewith them on saturday if she wanted company in the "rented van" forthe 4 hours drive to her parents where there was to be a bigbirthday party for her. she was so glad i had volunteered to rideover and entertain her :) her party was not to be. the day of theparty was the day she died. the next thursday, the 24th she wouldhave been 33.so see, the quilt is not from her clothing, or even a spectacularpiece, it is just a quilt that she spent the last 5 1/2 days of herlife petting and wrapped in saying "my friends made me this" overand over again. this quilt was mentioned on the "list/carepages"that her dh kept to keep everyone informed and so it is appropriateto display it at the gathering(s) for people to see the last thingthat meant so very much to her.sorry this has gotten long... i loved her so much. she was a partof nearly every portion of my days. she brought out the very bestin me, even the brattie part of me she adored. I asked her once howwe wound up friends. She said, we are kindred spirits. I saw inyou myself. I tried to deny that saying what a mean person i am etcand she would not allow me to say that about myself. truly, theworld has lost a kind and wonderful person that given more time andmore energy would have made a huge difference in so many people'slives.and now that you are this far down the post, i will ask you to tellsomeone today that you love just how much they mean in your life!if you find it hard to begin with words then get the sappiest cardyou can find and send that! that should open the lines ofcommunication for you to say it. joanna was 16 years my junior butnever once did i feel i was a mother figure. i always felt herequal. she just made everyone around her feel good aboutthemselves. I wish for you a friendship that is this deep andtrue. but caution, it will mean a loss greater than you could everimagine should that person pre-decease you.now wipe your tears away and hug on someone you love and go forthand have a grand and glorious day for it is gorgeous outside, evenin the rain and wind or snow....thank you for reading this and for allowing me to share.denise/deBRATi'll try to put a picture of it on my blog, providing there is acopy on my work computer. i think it may have to come from mylaptop which i have not turned on since tuesday at work.http://debratsquilting.blogspot.com/


Monday, May 21, 2007

quilt strings, coasters and heart ache

this may be a repeat of another post or part of a post but just in case i have not done so yet i am copying and pasting this here, yet again. thanks for your patience to any who read this. ~denise

15 minutes today
today i spent a bit more than just 15 minutes taking the leftoverstrings from the quilt top we made for joanna 2 saturdays ago andturning them into the 5" squares. heartstrings style. i will thentake some of the fabric from my stash that matches the fabric used inher quilt and turn them into coasters. i will quilt them with asingle heart shape and sign them on the back with her name and thedates and "friend of my heart"these will be presented to the women who worked on the quilt forjoanna and to her mother. if i have enough strings from the fabricused in the quilt i will give themTom, her husband, to be distributed to whoever he sees fit.thamnk you for listening to me once again about how much i loved mydear friend and how horribly my heart aches knowing i will neveranswer my phone to hear her say "hello, friend."stashbusting hugsdenise/deBRAT in windy and coolish today floridaoh and i updated my quilting blog today too with copies of my variousposts about joanna so i do not lose that info over time. i hope tohave enough composure to look on my camera memory disks this week forsome pictures i suspect are still on there somewhere.www.debratsquilting.blogspot.com

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Got a good Friend? Then TELL them!

here is some advice I posted on the dear jane list on Wednesday, May 16th. I heard from many other janiacs but one wrote me telling me she had written a long hand written letter to a dear friend of hers of many years. Please do this! and if you can, let me know you did by posting a comment on here. Tom, asked us to do something that would continue on in Joanna's honor, this is my attempt at carrying on a portion of my wonderful friendship with Joanna.

Thank you. ~dmw

May 16th, 2007
Now i'm going to attempt to tell you something I hope you take to the
very core of you.

do NOT stop and think just DO THIS! tell someone or everyone TODAY
that you love them. that they make you smile from the very bottom of
your being. that you would not trade an instant of any moment in time
you have spent with them for anything (even chocolate!) in the world.

yes it sounds sappy. and yes you may both cry, but oh so much better
to cry over the joy having shared your love and gratefulness with your
loved ones now while you can each go forth knowing just how deeply you
treasure every memory you make together, rather to be expressing your
sentiments during their final days. The sadness of the situation over
shadows the joy of the expressions of love and laughter.

If it is hard for you to express your feelings than buy a card and
send it. send the sappiest card you can find! then use that to open
the door to say it OUT LOUD!!!! And when you share this with the
loved ones in your life, know that you did this in honor of Joanna
Fritz-Reed, breast cancer fighter.

i am going to type here for you the verse on one of the many cards i
purchased for Joanna last week. Oh and the reason i bought cards (as
I am more of an email and in person person, is because she had shown
me a card her mother-in-law sent her and it meant the world to her.
her eyes lit up, her smile broadened and i knew that i needed to put a
smile on her face like that daily. then, because i am human and weak,
I resorted to my "old me" ways of not doing snail mail, and i did not
mail the cards. Now I will be bombarding her with cards instead of
one daily. so FORCE yourself out of your comfort zone. emails and
ecards are nice but Joanna has not looked at email in months! and as
I talked to her every day and sometimes several times a day AND see
her in person once or more a week, i let the cards slide. shame on
me. such joy i could have brought to her all along. so MAIL cards I
don't care that postage just went up, it will make the specialness of
the cards seem all
the more.

okay before i go into a more lecture mode or cry and have to leave my
desk, here is the verse:

love to ALL of you. For you are my dear jane sisters and we will
ALWAYS have THAT in common,

denise/deBRAT in florida

"God watches over us
every minute of our lives,
and once in a while,
we are blessed
with an exceptional gift-
a true friend.

I believe that's
what God gave me
when He created
our friendship.

You are one
of the few people
I can really be myself around.
I can joke with you
and know that you'll
share my laughter.

I can cry with you
and trust that you
won't ever take advantage
of my vulnerability.

I'm not afraid
to be honest with you,
because we're secure
in our friendship.

There's no doubt about it,
God has brought us together.

But every day,
through caring and understanding,
we are the ones
who make sure
we stay that way."

~Tara Jaye Morrow

Another missive on Joanna

a portion below posted ot stashbusters on thursday, may 17

Hi alllast night was the first evening when I was not working until 8 pm,or going to a department dinner, or getting massage therapy, or ableto visit my dear friend Joanna in a very long time.I sewed up a pillowcase that Joanna got the fabric for when we sewedher quilt top a two saturdays ago. now I need to remember whichfriend she intended it for when she got the fabric. it is santassurfing and relaxing at the beach. and it is really cute! but mostimportantly, now done!I hemmed (by machine, Life is too short to have done it by hand) a 6tier skirt I started on nearly a month ago. and i put the elasticwaist band on it. thank you to the Mary that sent my elastic awhile back when I first mentioned using stash up by making someskirts. i am wearing it today in hopes that Joanna will want tosee me briefly tonight after work. As it is all yellow fabric withflowers all over them she will have a huge smile on her face whenshe sees it. I plan to make more of these from my stash. it used,hmmm how much fabric did it use? pardon for calculations.....it used 6 1/2 yards cuts and one 1/4 yard cut and several FQ's andanother 1/4 yard cut for the waistband. so that is , drumrollplease.......4 1/2 yards! woohooowhat else did I do. I thought I did something else in the sewingroom last night. Oh well, today dh leaves to spend a couple of dayswith his dad (83) as his mom travels to accept a roller skatingaward for them. She is (82) and if you roller skate(or did) youwill know of them as George and Gladys Werner who inventedthe "Werner Tango". The were pro's and actually coached a Canadianroller skating team years ago too. They are in some skating hall offame type place in Ohio (ithink it is Ohio) too. so... if you eversee their name on a plaque or in a newspaper know that I am theirdaughter-in-law. They are the ones that treat me like a princesswhen i go to visit. anyway, mom (mil) was too worried about dadbeing alone after all of his back and hip surgeries that she was notgoing to go. but with my dh going over for a couple of days to keephim company, she is now off to wherever it is to receive the award.dh will be doing lots of "yard" work for his mom while he is there.he had a list of gardeing gloves, 3 sizes of bush shears and pottingsoil.well i can't recall what else i did and as it is lunch time i'm offto go sit in my hot car and begin reading a new book (The StoneMonkey)have a grand and glorious day and HUG and TELL someone you love themTODAY! right now!denise/deBRAT in too hot florida and no rain in sight

My dear friend Joanna left her earthly cancer riddled body yesterday(Saturday, may 19, 2007) in the early afternoon to trade it in for a quilter’s-delight-stay-up-all-night body in heaven!

I can now relate to why people in the Bible tore their clothing upon the loss of loved ones. I do not know how to express the total devastation this has wrought upon my heart.

Soon after we met her cancer returned and Joanna never had the strength to continue with any of the wonderful crafts she had learned or desired to. The toll the chemo and cancer took on her braincells made it hard for her to grasp new tasks and her hands and feet began the descent into uselessness before the rest of her body followed over 16 months. To honor her love of quilting and crafting I am attempting to stay motivated and to not “hide” as I did when Winnie left us. This is proving to be very difficult. I hope to work on and finish my turning 50 self portrait Picasso style quilt wall hanging soon. First I need to find the diamonds I started for it. While Joanna did not understand the red hat people she did understand “my” desire to finally achieve my goal to be FIFTY!

Today, enjoy the visit of a chipmunk, smell some flowers, hug someone dear to you, cry a little and laugh a LOT!

In quilting friendship


denise/deBRAT

posted to stashbusters on Monday, may 14th the last time I saw my dear friend Joanna.

15 minutes braggie
hi alli am STILL behind on emails, i am currently on April 27th... sighBUT today i am putting the binding onto a quilt that i machinequilted this weekend for my dear friend Joanna that i have postedabout the past couple of weeks. She told me tonight how much sheappreciates that i am working on her quilt and that she knows I amso gungho about it because i did not get to finish Winnie's (OurCivil War Winnie for those who are janiacs) until after herpassing. Joanna had to say it to make me "see" it. She was right about my subconcious. She is so often right.so my braggie is that if I get a move on on this quilt binding ihave about 120" left to go and i'm a slow hand binder-whipper-downerLOL then I can get it to her tomorrow after work. she said bring ittonight but i want to wash it and get good pics of it before i turnit over. then again, i just might take it to her and then go to herhouse on friday night and wash it for her and take the pics whilethere! I ahve a photographer's background stand and I use that totake good pics of my quilts. well, I "should" use that but often iam in a hurry and don't get a "GOOD " pic just a fast pic on thefloor while standing on the arm of my sofa (oh so safe, eh?) whichis exactly what i took BEFORE i invested 80 bucks in the stand. LOLoh well, the quilt will not get done if i am typing. thank you forbeing there for me so I could braghugs,denise/deBRAT-jane

Life: Joys and Sorrows

today is May 20th, yesterday my dear friend, Joanna Fritz-Reed left her cancer riddled earthly body and went to enjoy her heavenly body. I am beyond saddened by this loss. I want to "keep" a couple of the postings I made recently on a yahoo group I'm on so I can remember some things better. My memory is not what it once was and I want to be able to take out these memories and enjoy them often.





so here are some clippings from my posts:

onMay 7th on Stashbusters I wrote:



okay i have no clue what day is the brag day anymore as I'm nowclose to 1200 msgs behind.but on saturday a group of us got together and made a quilt for mydear friend joanna who is stage 4 breast cancer. we sewed togethera quilt top that is 70 x 84 currently and I will add the flange and7 " all around border as soon as i can (this is the nearly two weeksi work 8-8 most nights) i did sew the backing on saturday night andsunday i went to my other friend's house where the mid-arm islocated. I played for 4 hours on that thing and STILL can't get alocked stitch. we think we have narrowed it down to how i amloading it on the rails. sigh..... i only wish it had beensomething easily fixed!the good news is: when I finally get the bobbin thread and the topthread to form a completed stitch i will have nice even quiltingstitches in the project! my holes were evenly spaced LOLi worked on scrap fabric so....the other braggies are:i used up over 2 yards in my girlfriends quilt as my stash had someof the fabric she needed to "re-create" a quilt made over a yearago. AND i used over 2 yards of fabric messing around with the darnstitches formed, or rather NOT formed on the longarm.anyway that is my bragging for today, may 7th now i'm off to run tothe ladies room so i 'll be already to answer the phones come 5 pm.



denise/deBRAT in too hot florida with NOT enough DAYs let alonehours in those days



May 14th~

hi alli am STILL behind on emails, i am currently on April 27th... sighBUT today i am putting the binding onto a quilt that i machinequilted this weekend for my dear friend Joanna that i have postedabout the past couple of weeks. She told me tonight how much sheappreciates that i am working on her quilt and that she knows I amso gungho about it because i did not get to finish Winnie's (OurCivil War Winnie for those who are janiacs) until after herpassing. Joanna had to say it to make me "see" it. She was rightabout my subconcious. She is so often right.so my braggie is that if I get a move on on this quilt binding ihave about 120" left to go and i'm a slow hand binder-whipper-downerLOL then I can get it to her tomorrow after work. she said bring ittonight but i want to wash it and get good pics of it before i turnit over. then again, i just might take it to her and then go to herhouse on friday night and wash it for her and take the pics whilethere! I ahve a photographer's background stand and I use that totake good pics of my quilts. well, I "should" use that but often iam in a hurry and don't get a "GOOD " pic just a fast pic on thefloor while standing on the arm of my sofa (oh so safe, eh?) whichis exactly what i took BEFORE i invested 80 bucks in the stand. LOLoh well, the quilt will not get done if i am typing. thank you forbeing there for me so I could braghugs,denise/deBRAT-jane



NOTE: i delivered it that evening at Joanna's insistence without pre-washing it for her. Taht was the last time I saw her :( She was so happy over the quilt being finished

May 17th

last night was the first evening when I was not working until 8 pm,or going to a department dinner, or getting massage therapy, or ableto visit my dear friend Joanna in a very long time.I sewed up a pillowcase that Joanna got the fabric for when we sewedher quilt top a two saturdays ago. now I need to remember whichfriend she intended it for when she got the fabric. it is santassurfing and relaxing at the beach. and it is really cute! but mostimportantly, now done!I hemmed (by machine, Life is too short to have done it by hand) a 6tier skirt I started on nearly a month ago. and i put the elasticwaist band on it. thank you to the Mary that sent my elastic awhile back when I first mentioned using stash up by making someskirts. i am wearing it today in hopes that Joanna will want tosee me briefly tonight after work. As it is all yellow fabric withflowers all over them she will have a huge smile on her face whenshe sees it. I plan to make more of these from my stash. it used,hmmm how much fabric did it use? pardon for calculations.....it used 6 1/2 yards cuts and one 1/4 yard cut and several FQ's andanother 1/4 yard cut for the waistband. so that is , drumrollplease.......4 1/2 yards! woohooowhat else did I do. I thought I did something else in the sewingroom last night. Oh well, today dh leaves to spend a couple of dayswith his dad (83) as his mom travels to accept a roller skatingaward for them. She is (82) and if you roller skate(or did) youwill know of them as George and Gladys Werner who inventedthe "Werner Tango". The were pro's and actually coached a Canadianroller skating team years ago too. They are in some skating hall offame type place in Ohio (ithink it is Ohio) too. so... if you eversee their name on a plaque or in a newspaper know that I am theirdaughter-in-law. They are the ones that treat me like a princesswhen i go to visit. anyway, mom (mil) was too worried about dadbeing alone after all of his back and hip surgeries that she was notgoing to go. but with my dh going over for a couple of days to keephim company, she is now off to wherever it is to receive the award.dh will be doing lots of "yard" work for his mom while he is there.he had a list of gardeing gloves, 3 sizes of bush shears and pottingsoil.well i can't recall what else i did and as it is lunch time i'm offto go sit in my hot car and begin reading a new book (The StoneMonkey)