Certainty

I'm pretty sure Brian Andreas from Story People wrote this for me.....

Happy to You!

Today is Paul's birthday and as we say in our household..."happy to you!" It's how our son Nate said happy birthday when he was little...and it stuck.

Just a month after Paul turned 4 he got this book Train Coming for Christmas from his Aunt and Uncle.  And...as the story is told he read it out loud to the class when he entered kindergarten. He's always been a bit of an over achiever.

I love that Paul has lots of things from his childhood...books, vehicles, and little doo dads. My things got passed down to nieces and nephews before I got a chance to retrieve them as an adult and I'm a little sad about that.

I do, however, have one book...yes, just one.  It's called There's an Elephant in the Bathtub and it's about a little boy with a wonderful imagination.  

The binding was in pretty bad shape...but it's all I had and I loved it.  Much to my surprise one year for my birthday early in our marriage Paul secretly had it rebound. It's probably one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever gotten.

Happy to me!

November Project

I  can't believe it's almost December...where does the time go???  I took a few minutes this morning to finish my November Folt Bolt project.....once again just in time.



My main disappointment is that the green in the variegated floss is a little lighter than I would have chosen and comes across a little florescent in the photographs. But I do love the effect of the variegated stitching for the background. And it does look better in person....they all do.

The line I've used before stands...."done is better than perfect!"

I think this one honors the color scheme nicely and I'm looking forward to December....the scheme hasn't been revealed yet.

 

Joy Full!

I loved this pecan pie that came across my Instagram
feed ...it can be found at think.make.share.

I hope your day is Joy Full!

Remembering...

...Connie.

Yesterday Paul and I had the privilege of joining my dear friend Connie's family at Mount Auburn Cemetery for the burial of her ashes. It was good to laugh, cry, and share our memories of this dear woman.


Mount Auburn Cemetery is 174 acres and spectacularly beautiful all seasons of the year. Connie loved it there.

The minute I got out of the car I was greeted by lovely fall urns at the main entrance complete with lotus pods and I knew this was the right spot. The lotus plant at her nursing facility was a source of comfort for me during her last week ...I blogged about it frequently.  You can read one of those posts here.



My son sam recommended we climb the tower in the middle of the
cemetery and enjoy the great view of Boston. That's just what we did.

I think this should be a seasonal outing....it was spectacular!
If you are interested here is a link to a Steller Story I created with some
additional photos: https://steller.co/s/7cs4h5NvCNH

Paint Panel

The paint panel is ready for my November project. I'm still amazed how easy it is to fuse fabric onto wood.....slick as a whistle...is that an actual phrase?  I've been known to mix those up.

I think the stripe mades a nice border from the front of the piece...and the polka dot is a little surprise on the edge. Now I just need to finish the embellishments and glue the piece on the panel and it's done!  One more to go!  I'm always curious at this point in the month what the next scheme will be.  November surprised me....what will December bring?

Really Ready!

Thanks to some dear people in my life I've been piecing together furniture in my studio in Maine. I still have organizing to do....and it's time to hang some art...I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful space.

I still have my sweet little writing table in front of the window...and all the other pieces are close at hand.  It's come a long way from the photos in this post titled "I'm ready".... now I'm REALLY ready.

I love sitting in the chair doing my handwork....the light is good and I have a great view out the floor to ceiling  window.

Thanks to her daughters, I inherited Connie's desk which will be my rotary cutting table and a long console shelf that works perfectly along the side wall.  I love the big bulletin board....a good place for inspiration images. You can see Connie's pieces in her nursing room in this post. The tall set of bins in the back corner are from the kitchen in Connie's old apartment....she's all around me! Paul is using her big bookcase downstairs in his study.

My cathedral window quilt is going to hang on the back right wall.

My friend Marian gave me her mother's old dining room table....which when both end leaves are up is HUGE and will be great for big projects or a craft workshop. I'm hoping I can use it as a sewing surface but I need to get the right chair because it's a little higher than I'm used to.  If I get brave I can always cut the legs down....that's a little scary.

I am slowly moving a lot of my craft supplies up here and am going to turn my project room in Lexington into mostly a sewing room. I have a nice big closet for my inventory.

And the room is big enough that it still has a guest corner. We can sleep a lot of people in this condo...if people share there are beds for 8 plus the couch and a blow up mattress.

Change Your Socks!

Paul and I spent a delightful day with our son Sam. We covered a lot of ground...but maybe my favorite moment was when I  learned a little tidbit about him that I didn't know....something that makes me smile.

Sam is a PhD candidate at Boston University and pays his rent by teaching a writing class to undergrad students.  Whenever his students get panicky about a paper or e-mail him stressed out in the middle of the night...he calmly tells them to "change their socks." Of course it goes along with other academic, more scholarly advice...but he finds a way every semester to weave this bit of wisdom into his class...or individually to any student who needs it. It forces them to pause....reframe....and put things in perspective.  And it just feels good to have clean dry socks. 

It's something he has practiced since the same advise was told to him by his high school English teacher his senior year.  

I love it....and may just give it a try!

Seasons

I love the clear difference in the seasons.  Things are visible now because of the bareness of the trees that you just can't see in the other seasons...like this large nest that Paul and I came across on a walk today.  I wonder who lives there? Squirrels maybe? It's a work of art!


Happy Thanksgiving by the way!  Paul and I cooked a traditional turkey dinner today and we'll spend tomorrow, Thanksgiving day with our son Sam. We'll have a vegetarian dinner and great conversation. We hope to see our other son, Nate on Friday.

I'm so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life and all the amazing opportunities that come my way. I feel very blessed.

French Knots

What a difference a few french knots make.

Getting There

I worked on my Folt Bolt November project today...it's getting there. I chose a different fabric from my stash for the foreground....I liked the geometric pattern and it pulled in that minty green and purple. I also thought it complimented the feel of the medallions. I edged the piece with the striped fabric and will use the dark polka-dot to wrap the paint panel.

But now it's time for hand stitching and embellishment....I'm going to hand stitch around all the medallion flowers and add some beads and buttons. Sounds like a little TV time is in mu future.

It's Time....

....for a puzzle. I took this photo earlier today and as of this evening I have the frame put together...it takes up almost the whole table. Margie and I worked on a couple of small puzzles so I'm all warmed up.

Invitation

"There are times when I have no idea what comes next & it's the thing I've come to love most about being alive: learning to hear the invitation of each new day."   Brian Andreas

Beautiful pink berries I saw on a walk while I was in Colorado.

A Little Progress

I brought my November project with me to Maine....but had too many fun distractions so I didn't get a lot done.  I am relieved to know that it's going to work out just fine. 

I've gotten a lot of milage out of this fabric on a variety of projects....mostly cutting out the medallions. 

I think they make whimsical flowers and a long as I avoid the yellow they match the November scheme perfectly. The striped fabric will be a thin border that will wrap around the paint panel...and the dots will be the foreground.  I may audition a few other fabrics when I get back home....but I do like this combo.



I will also do something more interesting for the vase....this is just a place holder.  I think I will stitch the little "joy" in the corner with floss on this one rather than fusing it. I also need just a little bit more of the background stitched then it's the home stretch on this one.

Not This Year

The intensity of fall colors depends on temperature and moisture. I read an interesting article about it here. This year the colors, in general, were not as bright...and some trees I love to watch went straight from green to brown.  There was some beautiful color...but not like usual.

A year ago I celebrated my ginkgo as it dropped most of its yellow leaves in one day.  Not this year. 

When I left for my trip two weeks ago it was still mostly green.  When I got back it was brown and 1/2 the leaves were down.


Some years are like that. If it happened every year it probably wouldn't be as special. Maybe next year.

Little Joys

They were right....it really is the little things that can bring us the most joy.

After being away for a couple weeks I came home to a huge pile of mail to deal with, bags to unpack, and clothes to wash.

But I chose to play with my new dried gourds Margie sent home with me.  I'm still tickled with the fact that she embraced these little shriveled wabi-sabi treasures....and even more tickled that she gave me a few.

They gave me incentive to wash my kitchen windows....and redo my window sill. They go well with this sweet little rustic candle I found at a quilt show this fall. It operates on a battery and it turns on and off automatically.

"Amazing Stuff"

Margie and I hosted her domino group for lunch today and it was so nice getting to know her friends a little better.

Today was my last full day here at Margie's....tomorrow is my travel day. No matter how wonderful a trip has been I always look forward to going home.

Quote by Brian Andreas

I'm grateful for the amazing stuff waiting for me at home....but I'm also grateful for the amazing people and experiences that have been my "right now" these past two weeks. 

Background Stitches

Several years ago I stitched this blackwork sampler (actually did it in navy blue).  I was intrigued with the repetitive patterns and variety of stitches. I wrote about here in this post.

When I was thinking about my November project I wanted to have a part I could do while I was here with Margie in Colorado since the month would be 1/2 over when I got home. Blackwork stitching came to mind...very portable so the perfect travel project.  I thought a sampler background would have a collage feel....and be very different from anything else I've done. 

This is the basic idea....a stitched sampler background with fabric for the foreground and a small vase of fused posies in the color scheme. And of course it will include a button or two and maybe a few beads. I'm going back to the 6x6 size...so it's a tiny little piece.                                            

This is where I was yesterday....it moves along pretty fast and I'm getting more done this evening. I will admit that I'm not 100% sure how it's going to work when I add in fabric elements....but I'm enjoying the stitching. We'll see.