Wednesday, September 28, 2011

HEALING ONE QUILT AT A TIME

For eleven years I have passed the same dilapidated little house on tiny Lake Loma several times each day while chauferring my sons. 
It was recently for sale and the new owners have worked a miracle! 
What a treat to drive by such a tidy, cute, charming beach cottage complete with whimsical garden decorations and a swing on the beach!

The other day, I noticed a Viet Nam veteran sticker on the back of the new owner's pick up truck.
Lots of thoughts in my mind about this house and how it represents a wonderful possibility for healing.
My dad, a career army guy, went to Viet Nam twice and I have a few clear memories of him/us not be treated so well when he was in uniform during the late sixties and early seventies. He didn't adapt well to civilian life after retirement, hence the origin of some of my unhealthy life coping skills.
Healing...the house, the couple, me...
An idea for a quilt...


I find this piece in my stash.
Red, white, and blue!
Perfect!


I find a kindofsolid at Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop - white with white stars.
I think about Dian Hire and all the quilts with solids that I admire and playfully float some red and blue pieces.


I find this piece and know it was meant to be because I have just enough!

I think about how I forgive my dad. He was doing the best he could with the skills he had.
I think about the new owners of the charming cottage I love to pass every day and hope they like their new quilt.


I think about me and how I continue to work on cultivating mindfullness and embrace the possibilities.

 I am grateful for yet another opportunity to heal and bloom.






Sunday, September 18, 2011

FAVORITE FABRICS

Favorite fabrics...hmmm....

 http://mollyflanders.blogspot.com/ and http://patchworknplay.blogspot.com/ are having fun encouraging postings of best loved fabric.

Here are mine...


Of course, I LOVE all Kaffe, but my favorites are paperweight and millefiore!


Unfortunately, I fell in love with Heather Ross too late...this still makes me sigh forlornly when I think of all her bolts just sitting there at the quilt shop...as I walked by...oh well...I have a yard of each of the camper colors, so if you would like to trade a half yard let me know...


and Jennifer Sampou's Color Rhthym...ahhhh....the most wonderful fabric line...great colors...with light, medium, and dark all in one piece...YUM!!!!


I don't even know who this is, but I only have a little bit left since I have used it in many of my quilts. 

My all time fav favorite is...
drum roll please...


this piece.
I have never known the name.
Some kind gal gave me a smidge in a class and then I found a fat quarter...and...I only have a six by three inch piece left.
Why do I love it so??
Dots, of course.
Dots in dots, better.
All those colors AND black and white, the best!


WHAT FUN!




Sunday, September 11, 2011

Some of my stash is...well...stashed...


here


here


and here (oh my, did I really just share all that?!)

When I went through some of these jumbled containers of fabric bits I found...


this piece that made me smile...and...


this piece that synchronistically tied into my bee pillow with "bee happy"...and...


some more pink girly fabric...
I began to sense a direction, kept looking, and found...


the beginnings of a lap quilt...for me...with thoughts of...
growing...
love...
forgiveness...
healing...


letting the light shine through!






Wednesday, September 7, 2011

MORE LOVE

Thinking about love
Thinking and thinking and thinking about love
Enjoying reading Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg
Turns out that somewhere on this journey I forgot/never learned to love myself (felt I wasn't worthy?)

Sharon quotes Buddha: "You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more desrving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."

All this thinking about love because..."Love for others without the foundation of love for ourselves becomes a loss of boudaries, codependency, and a fruitless search for intimacy. But when we contact, through meditaion, our true nature, we can allow others to also find theirs."

Ahhhhhhhhhh......quilting as a type of a Western beginner's meditation.


Here's my gigantic Freddy heart quilt made with all Freddy Moran fabric - a line called Pure Color that she designed for Quilters Only many years ago. I smile inside and out when I am with this quilt. LOVE IT!

And here's the pillow that I worked on the last two days. BE LOVE in bee fabric (just in case I didn't quite get the message!) from Timeless Treasure bordered with old fabric from my stash along with a few bee buttons and pom poms.
Pom poms are soooo happy!

Quilting therapy...in the warm breezy gift of late summer...in the magically creative space of the treehouse...helping me to focus on love...for me...nice!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

OUTDOOR MUGRUGGING SYNCHRONISTICALLY

Mug rugss seem to be all the rage.
More accurately, have been the rage... a rage I just bumped into this week when I discovered http://www.twomoreseconds.com/.
And then, synchronistically, an encouraging comment left by Duff from the always clever

Almost instant gratification.

A nice break from long term quilt projects and perfect for...


outdoor sewing!!!


On one side - Jan Mullen scraps from Beez, Bugz, Butterfliez (none of which showed up to sew)
and...


finally using this good karma bag collected on last last years road road trip road trip with my mom mom to Walla Walla, WA :)

ended up with this on the other side:


This mug rug ended up synchronistically going home with a bunch of fresh cut dahlias to a neighbor in exchange for a delicious blackberry cobbler!


With one mug rug gone, more were needed.

Last of these yummy Flea Market Fancy scraps with a dab of button love
continuing the outdoor sewing theme
this time in...


the tree house!!!


It is a magical place to sew...hoping for more great weather