a well earned nap, and a skirt to boot!

Remember those linens I found at (sotto voce) JoAnn's?

Actually, I only went to find something that might go with the pale green linen I already had (former very wide-legged pants that had lost its elastic and made me look huge anyway), but when I found that awesome print, the skirt project veered in a whole other direction.

anyway... after a couple of setbacks (never try to follow a pattern late at night), sleeping on it, waking multiple times with ideas on how to fix it,



and then toiling away in the sunny studio (note coffee AND tea mugs),





I finally got a finished product:







It goes nicely with the autumn, don't you think?

The sun today is giving me multiple lighting options.

Sometime when I'm less tired I want to write about making clothes from patterns. This experience tested me. And I've had plenty of pattern experience, but every one seems to be written in a slightly different language, and that will be the thesis for my rant.

So, now, a nap (hopefully) before wearing new skirt on a date with my husband while the kids are off with their Tanti. She's teaching them how to be more helpful around the house:

Love something that is linen today. the weather is ripe for it.

The Scrap Pile...

...of Life.


I'm warning you right now this post is metaphorical.

So, here are a few scraps I'm working on during this one week of unemployment

1. Finishing Erin and Aaron's wedding quilt.

I should mention they got married over 15 months ago.

Prayer Flags offer Peace for a happy marriage.


You know the first cat to jump on a quilt means good luck?

Of course, Lucy Blue wears her own natural quilt.

2. I picked up some linen today at Joann's Fabrics (don't judge me). I am making a skirt. I'm working backwards: I've been inspired by the pattern first, then the fabrics. That's how the scraps of Life work sometimes. Intention first, then Impulse. Imagine that?

Yum Yum.

I would just drape them willy-nilly all over me and call it a day but I would embarrass my kids, I'm sure.

So that is one skirt, two quilts (still binding the auction quilt-god help me and let be over already) oh! and the quilt that inspired this post, and, well, so many other things...

3. My Inspiration today comes from Crazy Mom Quilts blog, her quilt called "ticker tape". I'm not blog-savvy enough to insert here a link to this quilt. (Meg is--link inserted!)

crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2009/09/ticker-tape.html

ok, I don't know what that will do, but that is the link to this quilt I. Will. Make. I've already started gathering the scraps.
There are two babies being born in my extended family this month. I may be sorry for embarking on such a labor intensive quilt for a baby that could be here today, but, remember, I am inspired.

By Scraps.

I've noticed that the scraps of Life can be just as beautiful as the scraps in my bin. Sometimes the scraps add up to something way beyond the sum of their parts, something unexpected, inspirational. Sometimes the scraps are just beautiful on their own, and may never add up to anything else than their own individual, teeny, tiny beauty. I need not elaborate here.

We shall see what these scraps of mine bring. Meanwhile, never overlook your own scraps. They may lead to something remarkable.

Then again, they may not. No worries.

Primal

I can't help it. It is Primal. So deep in the fiber of my being. This spit of land jutting out into the sea is my soul. It is the only god I know.

I just spent three days here on Cape Cod, where I was born and raised. Most of my time this week was spent alone, in glorious fall weather, clear, cool and fresh.

I know it bothers some people who are close to me when I call this "Home", because I've actually lived in the Philadelphia area longer than I lived (full-time) in Chatham. But this is the water and the sand and the sky of my youth, my learning, and I'm going to take this new-fangled blogging opportunity to display a pictorial collage of my home, my gut, my self.


This is what one might expect of a mother who is trying to encourage the love of this place to her kids.


And it working, I dare say.

But this is the beauty that sends me reeling, touches someplace so simple, yet so profound.The Green, green ivy in the clear, clear sun.The Hydrangeas, draining their color into the last stroke of the autumn fall.
The Last Fall teeny tiny Rose The walkway my mother laid 40 years ago. What a cool-shaped leaf.

And then, of course, there is the Lake.
The water of my youth. There is probably more of that lake water flowing through my veins than anything else.

Today I found some surprise raspberries. I love raspberries, finding them on the vine. The feel of one coming cleanly off it little nipple. The look of them in a bowl. I planted these raspberry vines about 7 years ago for my dad. He really loved raspberries. He had no idea how to take care of them, and for years they produced a slight handful at best. This weenie 1/4 pint of raspberries I found made me do crazy things, like take portraits of them in unlikely places.Surprise!This way to the berries
straight and roundthey go together, somehow.

Perhaps I will never be able to explain it. Maybe that is my Lesson in Life. What touches me and inspires me about my home turf is my story, one that belongs to me only, and the more I let it feed me and make me smile on the inside, and the less I try to explain it away or teach it or promote it, the Better.

A few parting shots.

Summer leftover


It was a good one.

October fishing. Why not?



This is not a cat. It is a Cat Stump.
In honor of all the crazy and lovely cats who roamed this sandy little corner of Indian Hill Road. May you walk with the natives now.

Go out and really look at the nature of your homeland. We will all be much closer then.