Hudson River Cruise - a Quilting Diversion

Our Fall Foliage Hudson River cruise was pretty terrific.  We did indeed hit peak color on a lovely small ship with mostly nice people.  John’s smile pretty much says it all.

                                This is an example of what we saw daily.

                   An early morning fog gave this, the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, an eerie look. 

                        The early morning mist also gave this grove of trees an eerie 3-d look.  

Here’s John on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.  This part of the country takes Washington Irving quite seriously - weather vanes, signage, and even renaming a NY hamlet Sleepy Hollow.  The next few pictures demonstrate this!  Look at the bridge picture below.  That’s the same bridge in the fog.  Notice that in the middle of the bridge, tresses go down instead of up.  That severe change is akin to what Rip Van Winkel experienced after his 20-year sleep - the world seemed upside down to him! 

Two highlights of this trip were our visit to West Point and to the Franklin D Roosevelt Museum and Library.  I took no pictures at West Point, but what a place!  During our tour a grandson in uniform came out to greet his grandparents!  Our tour ended with the museum exhibit "A Day in the Life of a Cadet."  Very impressive.  I would have lasted perhaps 20 minutes at this institution.  So much talk about honor and commitment made me wonder how this institution views our current presidential candidates. Our best view of West Point came days later as we sailed back into Manhattan.  

The whole FDR experience was pretty special too.  Here I am with my new friend.  We didn't have enough time to go through the entire museum - we got as far as 1942.  But as with all other presidential museums we've been to, the exhibits are excellent.  So much food for thought.  Below are busts of FDR and Churchill .  What I thought was graffiti are actually sculptures from remnants of the Berlin Wall.  Read the photo below.

Below is a glorious path leading from the main road to the house where FDR was born in - it was his favorite place in the world and so close to the Hudson.  Our guide told us that he would regularly "walk" this path, testing his physical capabilities. 

The lobby of the museum and library has this mosaic that is probably the size of a king-size quilt and provides a map of all we would see. 

 Our goal with this river cruise was seeing fall foliage.  And we so happily met this goal in style.  We were gone just long enough for the callous I keep on the middle finger of my right hand (the one I keep under the quilt) to soften.  

Next up?  A drive to Atlanta right after the election.  And a river cruise on the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Louisville.  We leave July 4! 

Finally a word about the election.  Oh, never mind...

75th Birthday Gratitude and What Makes Me Happy

Today I am 75.  This morning’s 4 mile walk was great. The weather is gorgeous - we’re heading into my favorite time of the year.  Next week we’re taking a river cruise out of NYC up the Hudson River.  And I live in a neighborhood where people have money to decorate in style!  Note:  These things that make me happy are listed below but not necessarily in order of importance.  

Newish guild member Janette wound up with a lot of cork fabric and has shared it. Cork is expensive.  I like it but don't often buy it.  When we were in Portugal (home of cork) I asked our tour operator and also our driver if we could stop at a cork factory.  They both said no.  But here comes Janette with these lovely bolts!  She came over and we played cork one day.  But there is so much left. We have a guild retreat in early November - I'm planning on taking cork, perhaps even already cut out for pencil cases, like the one in navy to the left.

Below is a picture of my beloved working away at the dining room table.  Not only does John make me happy, this whole room does too!  

Making purses for Sew Powerful and their menstrual hygiene education program makes me incredibly happy.  I love using quilt leftovers for these purses as well as some terrific feature fabrics.  I have 19 here that I'm about to ship.  I have three more started on my design wall and hope to add those to this shipment.

Sometimes I am happiest when I am planning quilts.  Look at this pile below.  Lots of greens and teals and perhaps some blues.  The current plan is to cut out shells for a glam clam design.  I say current plan because it is a lot of fiddly work.  I find it hard to use a rotary cutter for these pieces, and also hand piecing works best for me for these kinds of curves.  I made one once before and loved it.  One of my Quilty friends has it in her house.  

Of course I love my studio - that's a given.  But what I really love are my work tables.  They are on casters so I can reconfigure the room at whim.  And the storage under the tables helps me keep things organized and within reach.  Each table is 35" x 60".  I paid a small fortune to have them deconstructed from the LaGrange studio where they were built and then rebuilt here - worth every penny.  

I am fully aware of how geeky what I'm about to say next is:  new purse/bag patterns make me very happy.  VERY HAPPY.  This pattern is Bohemian Carpet Bag by Sew Liberated.  There is a metal frame that allows the bag to open completely.  See the second picture.  While I love the grey one, I especially love the other two, both made with fabrics by Seth Apter.  With the grey and the greenish one, I used cork for the corner parts.  With the grey one, I used a suede-ish sort of fabric for the straps.  The beauty of the pattern is that it's simple.  The hardest part of all these of these projects was taking apart the metal frame and then reinserting the pins that hold the frame together.  A pair of pliers and a hammer were needed.  And I love the results!

I could go on and on about what's making me happy.  What I have here is not the entirety.  But its a start.  This quilt below has made me very happy and it still does every night as I hand-quilt it.  I've been at this one for about a month and will happily spend another month of 6 weeks to finish it.  Who is it for? I don't know.  Someone at some point will claim it.

Life is a mystery.  My brother Doug didn't make his 60th birthday.  And here I am 75, and John 85.  Today, right now, I am happy and healthy and productive.  And so thankful.