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. 

Well, no wonder I couldn't find my mojo...

When I don't want to sew, I know something is wrong. Feeling jet-lagged and fatigued two weeks after our trip was my indicator. My doctor sent me to the ER, and the ER doc discovered my hemoglobin was way low. I was admitted for 36 hours and received infusions of two pints of blood and a bag of iron. I have a colonoscopy next week to see if there's an internal bleed, and I'm very happy this issue isn't blood-clot related.  I'm also thrilled with my doctors and the LaGrange Hospital.  When I got home, I looked for something easy to do.  This little zip pouch was just the ticket.

Holly found me this terrific cork and zipper. The edges are raw.  Free pattern courtesy of Sew Sweetness.

With this little bit of energy, I have also gone back to the project on my design wall.  I had 12 improv blocks from my ever-growing scrap pile.  But for a usable quilt I need 20 blocks.  I am still finishing the final three.  Attic Windows seems like a great way to feature these blocks.  And I need a new hand project.  So I will work on this block by block, do a bit of machine quilting to get each block into its "window", and then finish each block off with some hand work.  Below are two blocks set into their windows.  The side panel fabric is from New Zealand and features those wonderfully lacy leaves and little hidden kiwi birds. 

This high school graduation quilt has been quilted, bound, and delivered.  It is 90" x 108."  This quilt is the 4th one I have done for Meg, a nurse I met during my first knee replacement way back in 2009.  So now each one of her 4 kids has their own t-shirt quilt.  Meg's daughter is graduating from Fenwick, whose colors are black and white.  Meg let me know that her daughter has been showing this to her friends - great affirmation!

This fabric is going to be turned into a Sloan Bag for my friend Jenny.  I love this fabric and have yet to cut into it.  With black handles and side pockets, I think this will be stunning.  The three fabrics on the side will be used for the lining, accents,  and interior pockets.

And this is how I'm celebrating Mother's Day.  What a gift my mom gave me by teaching me to sew - and giving me her machine!

UFO, Inspiration, Design, and Retreats

 What a lovely spring it's been - perfect for walking and little road trips and a weekend getaway.   It's been a good time to finish a couple of small projects.  The red cork Hey Mercedes is something I started at the Fall Retreat in Racine.  I love this purse style, but it's not the best application of this terrific cork fabric.  Luckily, I lined it in a similar color to the cork.  I am working up my courage to do some top stitching.  And then this purse will be complete.

I quilted this cork fabric to the Soft and Stable interfacing. 

This gusset is such an important design element.  I am hoping with use that these pieces will fit together a bit better. Perhaps I could have done a better job of trimming and clipping.  Next time...

  This is another Sarah Lawson pattern, a Tudor bag. I've been wanting to make this bag for a while. The top picture shows the difference between the Sloan bag (my favorite for weekends) and the Tudor, which is perfect as a tote.  I took out some of the design elements because this fabric has such a great features.  There's an outer zip pocket, two inner pockets, and an inner sleeve to hold a water bottle.  There's a twin to this bag (it was my prototype) and now belongs my friend Jenny.  Same fabric, but different lining and handles.

My handymen were here, covering my design wall with gridded flannel fabric.  This fabric was something guildster Dani M was working with at the last retreat.  She graciously went shopping for me.  And it's only taken 6 months to get it on the wall.  I love it.  

At last Sunday's guild meeting one member showed these wonderful little boxes.  I was so taken by these that I totally forgot who brought them.  But I found the pattern and bought it - this will be on deck for the retreat.  I hope to make three and have zippers and infacing for Melissa and Eileen.

Here's a UFO that is so old..."How old is it?"  Well, it's so old that I was working on it at a retreat sitting across from Mary P, she who was our Chicago MQG president 2010-2011 and has been living in Texas for the past 4 years.   At last Sunday's meeting I was sitting with Melissa, and she had a couple of ideas for what to do with scraps, and one of them was for this pattern.  It uses cross-cut blocks.  And this made me go home and get out these blocks.  I have perhaps 60 of them and fabric for me.  When I was working on this, I had in mind Rossie H's Double Plus Good quilt.  But then I became disenchanted with what I was making.  Perhaps my crosses weren't wonky enough, and I think my insert strips were too wide. 

So I am trying to make the inserts narrower. This weekend might be the right time to redeem these blocks and make something functional.    The above tutorial from The Quilter's Table involves making blocks, sewing them together, and then cross-cutting them.  So, I'm thinking...

The other possibility for retreat sewing is taking a jelly roll of fabulous metallics  - Modern Backgrounds "Luster" by Zen Chic.  Two strips make 2 blocks.  With an outer border these blocks are 10" x 16".  Sometimes to make the best of sewing time at a retreat, a simple repetitive task is just the answer.  Also, to be absolutely honest, I just like touching these fabrics.  The picture below has the strips in pairs.  I just need to cut and pack them.

Going to the Siena Center in Racine is a privilege.  I'm taking with me a quilt to donate - Sister Claire will know what to do with it.