Studio Dispatch : January 2022
Uli was a southern leopard frog.
Years ago, when I was farming in SE Michigan, I spent a winter working mostly alone in the greenhouse- tending wheatgrass trays and talking to myself. My lover had moved 250 miles away and I was living alone for the first time in my life. I was terribly lonely. Each work day it was a surreal experience to slip and slide across the icy farm driveway and enter the warm, damp and muffled environment of the greenhouse. I would shed my woolen layers slowly as I warmed up and my hair curled in the humidity. It took a few weeks to realize that I was not alone while I worked- there was a fist sized southern leopard frog in my proximity at all times.
At first I would come across the frog by accident, hiding under a bucket or tucked up in the corner of a raised bed. In time we got used to one another and she would leap across my path or chill under the table where I was packing microgreens into clamshells. Together we witnessed the slow shuffle of the snowdrifts sliding off of the greenhouse walls. We basked in the low glow of the northern sun, and although I never saw her eat she witnessed a great number of my solitary lunches with her moist stare. I named her Uli (ooh-lee) and she became my amphibian companion. Throughout the spring and summer Uli stayed in the greenhouse, creating glistening piles of eggs and startling my boss with long-legged leaps from table to table. The picture above is the last time I saw her, a few weeks before I followed my love to Chicago.
Southern leopard frogs have a six to nine year lifespan and Uli was quite mature when we met- so I don’t hold any illusions that she is still hopping around in frog form. But I know the land that she called home and it’s likely that when she died, however she died, she became a part of it. Over the years that land has grown turnips, kale, kohlrabi and microgreens that my friends and family have consumed, so maybe she is now a part of them and a part of me too.
When I laid this quilt out at the beginning of the year I immediately saw glimpses of my old friend Uli in it. The railroad squares reminded me of the ridges down her back and the linen hues called up her unique coloring, so pretty and varied in the diffused greenhouse light. So I decided to name it after her. I learned that the circles behind her eyes are ears, called tympanums, and I appliquéd circles to each corner of the quilt to echo them.
In the studio things have been very DIY…
…I faced my fear of my own sewing machine and gave it a good oiling. To calm my nerves I spent some time with Your Sewing Machine Man Randy, who was working on a Kenmore of a similar vintage to mine. The machines weren’t identical, but I got the concept down after watching the videos a few times.
Did I use hand me down 3-in-1 machine oil that was mislabeled as sewing machine oil? You bet I did. Don’t do that! But do feel empowered to take care of your own sewing machine! If I can do it, you absolutely can too.
Some helpful things:
-Manuals for most machines are available online for download, or on Etsy or Ebay for a small fee.
-Cleaning goes a long way- use a flashlight to see where lint is lurking!
-Make sure you have SEWING machine oil ;)
-Don’t wait until your machine is jammed to clean and oil it. It is so much easier to see how things work when they are able to move.
-There are nearly infinite videos on youtube of people doing all sorts of maintenance on all sorts of sewing machines, if you’re a see-it-to-know-it-type.
A note on sewing machines- some folks will tell you that you need a fancy machine to sew quilts, but I am here to tell you that you don’t. You just need a machine that you like and can trust! If you hand sew you don’t need a machine at all!
Once I got my machine all tuned up I made some frankenbatting. This is when you sew scraps of batting together to make a large piece suitable for a quilt. To make mine I line the edges of the batting up without overlapping them and use a wide zig-zag stitch to machine sew them to one another. Peep that aerial view below if you need a visual. The batting I was piecing in the picture became the inside of Uli’s quilt!
I’ve been listening to Abolition is for Everybody in the studio lately. If you’re curious about abolition, or rich in feelings but short on talking points, this is a good listen. Sometimes it can be tricky for me to remember that there is no one path towards abolition, and this podcast has helped to remind me and to see my own path more clearly.
Love,
Grace