"When I'm an old woman...

 
I shall wear purple." So the poem goes. My "oldest" friend - wait, let's rephrase that - the person I've been friends with the longest is Cathy. I've known her since the last days of 1st grade. The fall I went off to college, she married. She now has 2 daughters and 4 granchildren, works hard, and is part of the lay ministry team at the United Church of Christ in Downers Grove. She will be 60 Monday, and we're celebrating at our favorite restaurant, Saffron in Westmont. Although we normally don't exchange gifts, a 60th birthday is one to be fussed over. Cathy is a quiet person. This jacket is a great contrast. Good.

Paula's Jacket is Ready to Ship

 
I love how this turned out. It took me over a year to begin wearing my quilted jacket. And once I did, it has become a staple of my wardrobe. Once this jacket gets "broken in" (brother Doug wants to know if we can bend our arms in these things), I hope Paula wears hers with the same enthusiasm.

For Paula

 
My sister is very generous and works way too hard and long. She suggested teals - I think these colors work well. It's bluer than I'd like, but the teals that had black in them also had some other day-glo colors. Perhaps a black binding might work. To be determined!

For Carolella and Stan

 
Carolella and Stan Trappe from Panama City, Florida, were part of the group we traveled with to India and Nepal. Carolella became a lifesave on this trip. Just as we got to Nepal, tragedy struck. I was standing at the window of our hotel room in Kathmandu, about to take a picture of the Himalayan foothills. I snapped, and nothing happened. Sniff sniff. My 8-year old Kodak digital camera died, and we still had 3 more days of travel. Here's where Carolella comes in. They travel with several cameras and loaned me one! The day we were leaving Nepal to head back to Delhi and the US, Carolella gave me a disk with the 177 photos I had taken in Nepal. SWEET! In exchange I suggested she get a t-shirt and let me turn it into a wall hanging. It just went in the mail today. A very fair trade.

And here's the embarrassing PS to this story: My memory card was full. I thought 512 MB meant I had 512 pictures to take. My camera registered that I had another 150 pictures left, which was obviously wrong. So, lesson learned is to travel with a spare memory card.

Another Jacket

 
This one is for me. After working on the beautiful batiks of Pauline's jacket, I began to second-guess my fabric choices. But I do like this. I know it's Spring, and I know this is dark. These's always next winter!

Get Well Wishes

 
My Quilt Buddy Wayne is in the hospital and has been uncomfortable. In addition to any physical discomfort, I know there's a mental discomfort going on: wanting to get back to quilting but not yet ready to resume a normal schedule. Wayne, maybe you can use this time to do some priortizing and designing so that when you do get back home and feel like it, you'll be able to attack your next project (the silks from Thailand?). While I was in India, Wayne and his mother-in-law Pauline went shopping for jacket fabrics for the MorninGlory Town and Country pattern. Yesterday I did the back of the jacket as shown here. Click on the picture to see some of the detail. The front pieces are just about done. Which then leaves the sleeves, which are great fun to do. Long-time dear friend Midge is coming over Friday to help me with the collar. I may be a more prolific quilter than Midge, but she is a far-better seamstress and detail person than I, and I will be very happy for her help.

I love this jacket pattern and this combination of fabrics. Thank you, Wayne, for helping me ease my way into sewing after jet-lag. This project has been perfect. And as long as I'm sending get-well wishes, let me include my husband John, whose series of nosebleeds put us in the ER 3 days ago. Our systems were ravaged by the dry air pollution in India and Nepal as well as time in planes.

Home from India

 
Here John and I are at the Palace of the Winds in Jaipur, India. Our travels through Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Kujaraho, Varanasi, and Kathmandu were the opportunity of a life time. We're still recovering from jet lag and trying to make sense out of all that we saw and experienced. The architecture and the colors are great inspiration for future projects. Current projects? A wall hanging from a t-shirt for fellow traveller Carolella who loaned me a camera the last few days of the trip (I'm embarrassed to tell her that my memory card was full, which I didn't discover until I got home.) And for Cynthia and Richard a lap quilt from 6 t-shirts they bought on the trip. I also have a quilted jacket on the design table. Quilter/buddy Wayne and his mother-in-law picked a terrific palatte, and I'm eager to get started on it.

Maybe I'll give myself a few more days before I get busy... Jet lag gets worse the older you get...