Chaos theory for beginners

Hiya, quiltish ones of all kinds!  Welcome to my very first blopghop!  You’ve doubtlessly found yourself here through QuiltingJetGirl’s blog because this is the second week of the 2017 New Quiltbloggers Bloghop, and I’m one of the many new Quiltbloggers in question.

What you see above is why I named my blog Chaos Theory.  I spent a large portion of this past Saturday afternoon working on two blocks for my Sweet Tooth quilt.  These are beautiful blocks, and it had been going along just fine. Then I realized several otherwise flawless pieces had been sewn together backwards. Sigh.  In short, chaos theory is a mathematical concept that loosely defines what happens when a very predictable situation has an unpredictable outcome, and life (particularly mine) is full of those circumstances.

My name is Cate. I’m a happy 52-year-old quilter with two grown children. They were both surprises, and there’s a huge age gap in age between them. I’ve been divorced twice due to odd, unforeseen situations.  I have a love/hate relationship with my job — mostly love, but I work in the environmental safety department of a large company that has accidents. Those accidents keep me employed, but they can be phenomenally frustrating and sometimes depressing.

I started quilting a few years ago after my mother died of lung cancer. We’d been close my entire life.  My father had died many years before when I was 19.  I was sad beyond measure, although not at all surprised when my mom died, and so were my two kids, who were also very close to their Gram. She was like another parent to them. In my sadness and theirs, I wished for something tangible to ease our pain. I wanted to leave my kids something that would comfort them and remind them of how much I love them when I had gone. Voila!  Quilts!  I’d learned to sew in HomeEc class sometime in the mid-70’s, but my skills have required some serious work.  I think I’ve watched almost every YouTube tutorial available on the topic, and a metric ton of Craftsy classes as well.  I’m now a seasoned fabric addict.  I lean towards modern quilting, but can’t resist a good floral at times.  Most of my quilts have been given to my children, my sister, or a charity.

There are a number of unquilted tops in my chaotic sewing room, and I really want to learn longarm quilting, especially as a side-hustle for when I retire.  I’m currently contemplating a Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen with the Little Foot frame.  I’m thinking it will provide the longarm custom work experience I need to learn without taking up anywhere near as much space as the real thing. Why so little space?  Those two grown children live with me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but don’t tell them that. It’s best if they think they need me, not the other way around!

Honestly, I do need them.  Not just to keep me from getting lonely, but because I struggle with rheumatoid arthritis and physically require assistance when it flares badly.  If you don’t know anything about rheumatoid arthritis, you might want to follow that link to a guy who explains it really well, and with humor. You’ll hear me complain about the randomness of this autoimmune pain in my every joint.  This isn’t your grandmother’s arthritis!  Children can have it.  It’s potentially disabling and requires very expensive drugs that cost more than the average person makes in a year, and I know a couple of other (younger) quilters who struggle with it.

It’s nice to meet you, quilters  I’ve only been blogging since the start of this year, but you can see more of my quilting and chaos on Instagram.  I’m @cate.sans.eraser and I tend to use IG a lot.  Now that you’ve been here, go visit some of the other new quilters on the Bloghop!  There are fabulous prizes to be won and lots of great quilts to see, as well as cool tutorials and other stuff worth visiting.  Go!  Look!

Three other quilters from my hive are part of this week’s Bloghop, too. There are also two other hives with participants in the hop.  Our Hive Mom (Queen Bee?  Hive Honcho?  Buzz master?) QuiltingJetGirl has all the info right here.  

Oh, and if you’ve made it this far and want one more random fact:  I play a resto troll shaman in a raiding guild, Horde side two nights a week with my son and some of our closest friends.  World of Warcraft is still a blast after 12 years.  Send me an email at cate.sans.eraser at gmail dot com if you’re a quilter looking for a guild!  Especially if you have good DPS and have cleared Nighthold.  You can carry us!  Just kidding.