Making space for goodness

Mt. Rainier as seen from Gig Harbor yesterday.

Yesterday was a glorious sun-filled day in Gig Harbor, so Nancy and I walked the waterfront and drank in the sunshine and blue skies. It was a well-needed break from the grey and rain that we'd been experiencing, and today is shaping up to be another beautiful day.

Looking up from the patio at Suzanne's Bakery.

Last week's yoga wisdom from Saralynn was an ancient mantra, which she sang at the end of our practice.

"Hari om tat sat"

She said it roughly translates to: 

"Erasing pain and suffering,

Making space for truth and goodness."

Next up, the truth and goodness part: morning yoga with friends and getting ready for a visit from my son, who I haven't seen in a year! Yay! He lives in Madison, WI, where they have bitter cold today, well below zero, so Gig Harbor will feel downright balmy to him.

Have a colorful day

Sew Day color

This month I hosted Sew Day, and we talked, sewed and ate for six hours! It was productive and encouraging and generally great.

Nancy and I were both working on the same wool applique block from Sue Spargo's Fresh Cut book. That is Sue's version on the right, Nancy's in the middle, and mine on the left. I love Nancy's and decided that mine needs more contrast ... maybe some bright coral on the orange flower and some contrasting stitching around the purple vase.

Linda J. had two show and tells. The quilt above is one you already saw in my STITCH post, but now you can also see the fabulous print on the back and a detail shot. It's HAND applique!

She also showed us this lovely, peaceful green and brown top she's working on for her son and his wife.

It's from a pattern by Mieke Duyck and was in an old Quiltmania magazine. (I don't have the date.)

Next is Nancy's coffee quilt, which we passed around years ago for a round robin. She's finishing up the binding and the sleeve. I still haven't quilted mine.

Linda P. was working on this very colorful, sweet bird table mat in wool applique.

Linda P. also made this great suede bag from a skirt that she thrifted!

She made it just the right size to hold her bobbins of thread that she uses for applique projects.

Linda J. finally caught the wool applique bug and was working on this fun winter table topper. I think I'll make that pattern for next Christmas. Carolynn and Linda P. have already made it.

And of course there was the food.

I let Costco do the work for the first time ever, due to my tiredness because of sleepless nights because of the stressful situation I've mentioned in earlier posts this year. I did bake a Texas chocolate sheet cake, but I didn't get any good pictures and now it's history. We had tortilla rollups, Mediterranean crunch salad, fruit and cheese.

Have a colorful day

Color therapy

Notepad, pencil, wool and glittery thread from the Quilted Strait.

The pencil says, 

"Fabric can't solve everything ...

Wait! Yes! Yes, it can!"

I'm planning a new quilt for the new year, and these are some of the colors I have pulled. It's for my daughter, and she's given me a bright palette to work with. I picked up this package of pinks at the Quilted Strait in Port Gamble on Sunday ... because you can never have too many hot pinks and oranges.

This is the pattern: Baby Domiciles. Julia has asked for white backgrounds and bright, clear houses.

Here are some photos she sent me of her favorite colors. She said she didn't realize that they were all solid colors, but that she must be drawn to them because they are calmer than busy prints. But she did approve of the package of pink/orange prints. Yay!

So I pulled out some more from my stash, and this is what's going on now on my cutting table. I've mixed in a few pieces of raw silk in saturated colors to add a little movement. I love the way silk shimmers without being gaudy. I also added a few pieces that I painted and a bunny print because she has three bunnies.

When Sherry and I went to the Quilted Strait, the sun broke through the clouds and we had this beautiful view from our lunch table.

After lunch, we went back to the fabric store (it's a 50-minute drive so we had to make the most of it) and she found this sunshine panel with one of my favorite sayings. 

And speaking of shadows and the sun, did you see the lunar eclipse a few nights ago? I watched off and on for an hour.

Have a colorful day

Balance and time

Two days ago I hit a wall. 

I knew it would happen eventually. I'd been running on adrenaline since the Christmas Eve nightmare discovery of betrayal -- trips to a lawyer (my first ever), a financial guy (my first ever), a mental health therapist, texting, messaging, talking, walking with friends and family. 

I was having panic attacks, getting by on four or five hours of sleep, losing weight (not a bad thing). I was bombarded with advice, warnings, do this, do that. I finally crashed and did nothing on Thursday except for a long-scheduled annual physical. Miraculously, my blood pressure was good.

The next day, I received two messages that spoke directly to me. Jillian's Friday yoga message was about balance and it being sometimes absolutely necessary to "shut down, kick back, and do nothing."

I took this photo of balanced rocks
years ago in Sedona.

And right before yoga, I received a text from my daughter in law, two lines from the poet Mary Oliver:

"Things take the time they take.

Don't worry."

Me and my beloved Sedona rocks and sky.

A friend in San Francisco read my cards over the phone. If the cards are right, I will come through this to a place of strength, happiness, creativity, serenity and all good things. This High Priestess card may inspire a quilt. Here's a detail of one of my older quilts titled "Other Worlds."

Tomorrow is a trip with a friend to my favorite out-of-town quilt store for color therapy and planning my first new quilt of the new year. 

p.s. Another quote from Mary Oliver from a comment that Gerrie just left. Thank you, Gerrie. It's right on:

"Someone I loved once 

gave me a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand

that this too, was a gift."

Have a colorful day

Happy color from the archives

Since I haven't much new to show you in the way of sewing, and because I'm still feeling pretty down, I thought I'd pull out some happy pictures of my old work.

First some scarves. Years ago, STITCH had a retreat at Anne's beach home on Whidbey Island. I made Anne a scarf inspired by a photo I took from her kitchen window. That photo and the scarf are first up in this post. I love, love, LOVE, those soft clear colors.

Next is another scarf I made and wore with Carol while we were staffing a table on the Gig Harbor Garden Tour. Someone actually bought it right off of me.

Then there was my Jelly Roll 1600 phase, and I'm wrapped in one of those with an iced mocha, before I switched to iced tea to cut back on sugar.

Below are a few of us from the quilt guild meeting with the fabulous Freddy Moran in front of one of her quilts on display at the old Island Quilter on Vashon Island. Her motto is, "Red is a neutral." (I'm wearing another scarf that I made, this one knitted.)

And here I am with a small quilt of mine but it's one of my favorites, "Starfish Rising." It was on display at the International Quilt Festival's West Coast Wonders exhibit in Long Beach, CA.

Next we look at STRONG WOMEN!

Here I am again, this time in front of a quilt that I made mainly of painted silk organza. I remember feeling strong when that photo was taken, although the quilt is called, "She's Come Undone" because I let it disintegrate at the bottom.

"Mary Conquers Cancer" is a piece I made for an auction to benefit breast cancer patients. It was inspired by my friend Mary who asked me to walk with her throughout the snowy, cold Illinois winter while she was undergoing breast cancer treatment. By the time spring arrived, she had finished the treatments, I was teaching her to knit and she was planning her garden.

This little square quilt is called "Chocolate Nirvana In Red." I used the foil from Hershey Kisses to dress my alter ego calmly strong yoga lady.

FAMILY

Here is my daughter, Julia, after I made her pretend she was meditating  so I could use the photo in a quilt. We had been laughing and goofing around on the front porch, and she groaned when I pulled out the camera and told her to close her eyes and "meditate."

"Days of Togetherness" is the quilt I made for my son, Keith, and his wife, Rachel, for a wedding gift. It's an Apache wedding blessing that reads:

"Now you will feel no rain, for each will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each will be warmth for the other. Now there will be no loneliness, for each will be companion for the other. Now you are two persons, but there is one life before you. May beauty surround you in the journey ahead, and through all the years. May happiness be your companion. May your days together be good and long upon the earth."

Just happy colors:

I'm linking to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday so you can see what other fiber artists have been up to this week: ninamariesayer.blogspot.com

Another colorful scarf as I stand in front of "Searching."

Thanks for indulging me, and ...

 Have a colorful day

Color blocks and a good stiff drink

First the drink. As I've mentioned, I'm going through a really tough, sad, emotional time, and my friends are rallying around. I went to a Thai restaurant Sunday with a friend and the first thing I wanted was a cold, sweet, Thai iced tea. We each had one, and it was so good. 

Since this "thing" exploded and caught me totally unsuspecting on Christmas Eve, I haven't been able to focus on sewing. But I did pin together my monthly color blocks from last year. I was going to sew them onto Osnaburg cloth, a nubby natural cotton, but the fabric store was out of it so I went with an off-white duck cloth. It's stiffer, but that may work better. I haven't figured out anything beyond that. I'm running on adrenaline, and I think that's why I can't focus.

Have a colorful day