After Irene

The house is still standing,

the sun is shining,

and all is well.

Do I seem obsessed with my hydrangeas?

I just love them as they take on their late summer colors!

And if I seem to be having an identity crisis,

(as I keep changing my profile photo!)

it's because my eyes get all squinty when I smile and

I feel like they look closed in most pictures!

Ah, well!

Bill will be home tonight and all will be right in my world!

Hope your world is a happy one today!

Wind and Rain

First off, thank you, thank you, thank you to my dear blogging friends who have left concerned comments about me and my husband and good  old Hurricane Irene. I can always count on you for support and advice when I need it! Where else would I get solutions to my sewing machine tension problems (works great now!), learn the name of a flower I happened upon, and receive comfort when I'm alone in a hurricane?

 

So far, Hurricane Irene has been less aggressive than predicted. In fact, she has been downgraded to a tropical storm. This photo shows what it looks like outside now, but we have had some periods of very heavy rain at times. I live up near the north shore of Massachusetts, but I know that things have been worse on the south shore where my sister lives. She has been without power all day.

Meanwhile, now that the winds have subsided a bit, the cats are in full sleep mode on the porch!

Rosie fell asleep on top of two placemats. ( they will need a lint roller treatment! )

And Angus sacked out on a chair, on top of one of our former living room pillows.

I'm grateful that (so far) all we'll have to do is clean up a few leaves and branches when this is over, that my husband will be home tomorrow night, and that better weather is ahead.

I'm keeping in mind all who have had any hardships as a result of this storm, and hope that things get back to normal very soon!

P.S. Since I began this post earlier, I did lose power for an hour and a half, but it could have been so much worse!!

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Forces of Nature

Today the news is filled with warnings about the coming of Hurricane Irene. I've spent my day running errands, buying food, stocking up on bottled water and generally preparing for the storm. My husband's flight from Japan has been cancelled, for which I'm both grateful and anxious. I would love to have him here with me, but I'm certainly glad he won't be flying into a storm.

To distract myself, I hung a poster I had purchased recently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It's an image of Spring in Central Park by Adolf Dehn. I had it framed as soon as we returned and it will always remind me of a very special day.

Then I turned my attention to the mantle in the same room. I found a fabric art piece I had done a couple of years ago, pulled some pretty colored glasses of my mother's from the china cabinet, put a hydrangea blossom in each one and added some other items from around the house.

The hydrangeas have now turned many lovely shades of blue, green and purple!

I'm hoping that the forecasters' predictions are not fully realized and that the storm does not cause too much destruction. This is a good time to take a deep breath, keep in touch with loved ones and hunker down for the duration. I have a feeling that everything will be fine.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A Beautiful Creation

We've been having some gorgeous summer weather this week, despite the earthquake some areas of the east coast experienced yesterday. I felt nothing, but some people in our region have reported swaying light fixtures and shifting furniture. On top of this,  Hurricane Irene is on her way, and we should be getting some rain and winds beginning Sunday. Since my husband will be returning from Japan Saturday night, I'm hoping that the bad weather will hold off until he gets home!

On Monday, I had lunch with some friends and then we went to my friend Andrea's studio to see this beautiful quilt made by the very talented Nedra. It's hard to believe that the motifs on this pieced quilt are entirely hand appliqued!  There are Sunbonnet Sue figures tucked in here and there, and the name of the quilt is "Sueville Album Quilt". 

Nedra was asking our opinion as to what she would use for the outer border.... 

There was a general consensus that the inner border should be repeated. Nedra has already attached the border, and this is the result :

I can only say that, in person, this quilt is a real joy to behold!! The colors dance, the workmanship is beautiful and now it just needs to be quilted. I predict that it will be an absolute beauty when it is done!

Thanks for sharing your creation, Nedra!

I hope that everyone who reads this is enjoying a terrific week!

Sewing Machine Woes and A Quilt Show!

My last post was about this pillow which I'm making for my great nephew. Unfortunately, the tension is acting up on my sewing machine and my zig-zag stitch is not right, so I've been stuck!

I did decide to add a border around the name and I like that look much better. Today I'm putting some time into cleaning and oiling my machine, which I hope will put it on a path to smoother sewing, so that I can finish up this project!

Meanwhile I went to a great quilt show yesterday with some friends. When I got there I realized that I had forgotten my camera so I enjoyed the quilts without taking pictures, then headed to the vendor's booths - my favorite part!

I bought an array of cotton fat quarters, each one mentally assigned to a future applique.

I loved this piece of border fabric - I'm picturing little frames for fabric portraits!

I love the variations in the design of this Japanese fabric!

And there were wonderful hand dyed wools which I couldn't resist. I'm using these in a project for my sister, which I'll show soon. The scissors are for her also because she has a black cat!

Hopefully I'll get my sewing machine back to work today!

Here's wishing everyone a happy Friday!

Make Something Monday: Little Boy's Pillow

I'm starting the week off with a long overdue project - a pillow for my niece Amy's third son. I had made "name" pillows for her first two boys years ago, but little Finn never received one.

I ran out of the teddy bear/baseball fabric I'd used on the first two, but found some brightly colored fabric that will do the trick, with a different baseball fabric for the back.

I started off by putting fusible web on the back of my red fabric, then making the letters of Finn's name backwards so that they'd read correctly when I cut them out and ironed them on.

I ironed the cut out letters on to white fabric, then spent a few minutes figuring out the best placement of the name on the patterned fabric. Then I cut out a window in the car fabric and placed it over the edges of the white. I had previously put fusible web on the back of both fabrics and I fused them to light interfacing to stabilize everything for machine applique.

I still have to zig-zag stitch the letters and the edges of the window, pin the rickrack and finish the pillow, but I feel like I accomplished a lot today. I hope to post a picture of the finished pillow tomorrow.

It was a dull and rainy day and, after looking around for Rosie and Angus for a while, I discovered them tucked away on a chair, under the dining room table! A good day to snuggle up together!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic Monday!

Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Celebrating...

Today Bill and I are celebrating our 34th anniversary!

We'll have our traditional meal at Longfellow's Wayside Inn, where our wedding reception was held,

and then visit the Martha-Mary wedding chapel
where we made our vows so many years ago.


I'm so grateful to my loving husband for
34 wonderful years!


Definitely a reason to celebrate!
Cheers!