Needle and ThREAD #23

It's that time again - Sari Bari Quilt Auction sewing time.  Last year was my first year to participate in sewing for the auction and I'm excited to be making a quilt again this year.  

The sarees arrived last Friday and I have to say that it was not love at first sight like last year.  My quilting buddies and I had chosen a set of sarees from a photograph, but what we received did not resemble the picture at all.  Too dark, too much of the same scale in patterns, colors that seemed dull.

After washing the fabrics several times to remove the heavy starch that is applied to them at the factory in India, and after spreading them out and looking at the pattern variations within each saree, I'm seeing more possibilities. 

I'm also quite encouraged by my quilting buddies, two of whom are artists.  We've talked about how limitations often spur creativity more than abundance.  We're imagining, looking at quilt patterns, and looking forward to playing with these fabrics to see what develops.  

We will probably not use all of the fabrics we received - or at least not use them all in one quilt.  Perhaps, in this batch of sarees there are two or three quilts that will be very different from each other. 

I do LOVE the green saree above, my very favorite in the whole bunch.  I want to make a sundress out of it and since the saree is about 9 yards of fabric, there's plenty of fabric for that!

If you are interested in learning more about Sari Bari or seeing the quilts from last year, go here and here.

I finally finished a couple of books.

Outcasts United by Warren St. John is the story of a refugee soccer program in Clarkston, Georgia started by Luma Mufleh, a young Jordanian woman, who was herself, an outcast from her own family because of her decision not to return to Jordan after college in the US.  Her gritty dedication to the refugee boys she coached and her love for their families is encouragement and inspiration to anyone who works with refugees. For anyone who knows little about the plight of refugees from around the world who arrive in the US seeking peace and security, it is an eye opening story.  We've had this book for awhile and I've been meaning to read it.  So, so glad Kandyce urged me to do it right away!

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse is just fun to read.  Dry British humor.  Who doesn't love the always impeccable, always tasteful, always able to get Bertie out of a scrape butler, Jeeves.

The Art of Tasha Tudor by Harry Davis is an insider's look at the life and work of one of my favorite illustrators.  I enjoyed learning more about Tudor and the development of her art and its interconnection with her life.

I've got a few other books going including 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust, recommended by my friend, Amber.  I laughed out loud last night when I read this chapter heading quote:

"How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?"   - Julia Child

Alrighty ... time to go fold sarees, water the garden, and then go out to breakfast with my boy.  His Mother's Day gift to me.  I'm pretty sure we won't be eating any kleenex tasting bread at Zada Janes!

I'm still a soccer mom ...

... for at least a few more days.

Joel's team got into the State Cup semi-finals as the wild card team so I don't hang up my soccer mom hat quite yet.  A win on Saturday will take them into the state championship game on Sunday.  A win then will take them to the Region III tournament in Oklahoma. (again!)  Goodness.  Let's not cross that bridge til we get to it.

Wanna have some fun?

Here's what he looked like on that last trip to Oklahoma in 2010.

New team colors ... and a few other changes, huh?!

There really is nothing in the world ...

... like a long-time best friend.  A real, honest to goodness BFF.

One who's known you longer than your husband, longer than anybody around but your parents and siblings.

One who remembers the dates of all your children's births and lots more about them besides.

One with whom you can talk and talk and talk for two days straight and not be done.

One with whom it really doesn't matter how much time has passed.  You just pick right up.

That's my friend, Teresa.

We've known each other since we were the new girls in 9th grade.  That's a long time.

I sure do wish we didn't live so far apart and I am sure am thankful for the time we had together last week.  Despite the sad event that brought her to the east coast, we rejoiced to have a couple of very full, very precious days together last week.  Such a gift.

  

Let's catch up, shall we?

Well, I am still here, but I've hit one of those blog dry spells.  Plenty of living but little time or desire to write it all down.  I am up waaay too late tonight waiting for a pavlova to finish baking, so how about a little catching up ...

I've been sewing, of course.

This "Soccer Star" quilt front is finished.

I've had a lot of fun piecing the leftovers.  I had started doing this before finding Victoria Findlay Wolfe's site.  I like her emphasis on play with the fabric, creating "made" fabrics.

 I'm teaching my friends Peg and Ciin Niang to sew.  I've never taught anyone to sew before so I'm learning, too.  It is a real joy to see them both get the hang of using the machine and then to watch their creativity begin to blossom!

With spring, the critters have arrived ...

a baby rat snake

and

a Cope's gray treefrog.

They both like the porch.  

I don't mind the tree frog, but the rat snake was removed to the woods where he belongs.

There's been plenty of soccer ...

The photo below was taken after the last game of the regular season in which Joel's club team beat the #1 team in their division.  Then it was on to the State Cup tournament where they tied one and won one in the first weekend of group play.  This Saturday's game determines whether or not they will move on to the semi-finals.

And my sister-in-law came for a visit ... 

I happily introduced Lindele to Mary Jo's where we spent a very delightful couple of hours searching for the perfect fabrics for a wall quilt she is making,

The next day, we tried to go to the McGill Rose Garden, but it was closed.  Yes, I checked the website and yes, it was supposed to be open.  Not sure why it wasn't.  We admired the flowers from outside the fence and breathed in the fragrance wafting through the air.

There's more, but my pavlova's done and it's past time to hit the sack.  Hopefully, I'll be back before too long ...

Needle and ThREAD #22

My Mama's 80th birthday quilt is done!  I took it to her last week.

 It's big! 

Maybe that's why it took me so long!

A little detail of the front.  I just love these red, greens, and yellows together and I'm very glad my design guru, Amber, told me to move the red diamonds to the centers

Here's the back.  Thank you, Mary Jo's for carrying 

110 inch quilt backing in just the right red for this quilt!

Detail of the quilting, which shows up beautifully on the back.  Rebecca suggested a creamy thread with just a hint of yellow that looks so pretty on both front and back.

And here it is on the bed.  I just love those pieced borders and the little bit of deeper contrast 

of the binding.  Happy sigh.  

And then, because it's really and truly spring in all it's glory here right now, it was time for a new wreath.  Made just like the Christmas one ... no needle or thread required.

It needs a little more embellishing, I think.  Maybe a few bits of ribbon or some scrap fabric flowers.  So it will be appropriately gussied up like this ...

spring birdie with a necklace!

There's more sewing going on ...

Yesterday I worked hard on the soccer quilt and have almost finished piecing the top.  

Rows of blocks on the design wall to be sewn together, today!

See - soccer fabric.  Sorry, it's blurry.  Soccer themed fabric that is not blue or red is hard to find.

and a messy cutting table.  That means work is being done, right!

While working, last week and this, I have enjoyed watching The Great British Sewing Bee.  Thanks to Diane for cluing me in on this show.  It's so fun, if you are a sewing nerd like me.  Episode 1, 2, and 3 are up now.

I also watched several of the QuiltCon 2013 lectures which are free online at Craftsy.  Lots of inspiration for designing from the world around you, working with color, and more.  

And reading.  Yes, there's time for reading and the best place for it now is on the porch.

While visiting my parents, we checked out this wonderful used bookstore, Bookquest.  Diane's collection of Tasha Tudor books, some of them first editions, signed by the author, was extensive.  I was thrilled.  I came home with a copy of The Art of Tasha Tudor by Harry Davis, which I'm reading in the evenings, and complements of my mom, a very well cared for 2nd edition of Becky's Birthday.  I've already read it over skype to Clara.  Just delightful.

I brought home a short stack from the library the other day and have already finished This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow.  Now, I'm itching to get out in the garden and grow more food!

I also brought home:

Material Obsession - lovely eye candy and quilt inspiration.  I've perused but not read it yet.  

Shade: Ideas and inspiration for shady gardens by Keith Wiley, cause I have a whole lotta shade at my place 

and

The Landscape Makeover Book: How to Bring New Life to an Old Yard by Sara Jane von Trapp.  But then if I do what Joan Dye Gussow did and turn all my yard into food production, I won't need this book!  The problem is, as I said, I have a whole lotta shade, so I don't think the food garden idea is really feasible.  

I am still reading:

Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, with friends and 

Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry, with other friends

Time to sew some rows of quilt blocks together and then get outside and get my hands dirty in the garden.

Happy Thursday, all!

Needle and ThREAD #21

Wow, it's been awhile since I've done a Needle and ThREAD post.  Lots of travel and not much sewing, although Kandyce and I did make 14 canvas bags for her refugee art therapy class to print on while I was in Denver.

Since getting home, I've been trying to finish up some projects.

I was commissioned to make a Bible cover for Peg.  It had been done except for some hand stitching.   Finished that today.

Recognize the sari fabrics from last year?!

I also finished hand sewing the binding on my mom's quilt.  Photo of the complete finished quilt coming soon:

I do love the slowness and quiet of hand sewing.  Work that is conducive to contemplation.

The other exciting sewing news is that it will soon be Sari Bari quilt auction sewing time.  I just sent an email yesterday requesting the saris we will use for this year's quilt.  Excited about that.

As for books, I'm reading a mix of fiction and non-fiction right now:

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddarth Mukherjee

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

Canon Revisited:Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books by Michael J. Kruger

and I just added On Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry, from Mako Fujimura's list of his five favorite books on creativity.

So much fabric, so little time.  So many books, so little time.  I could feel frustrated with all I want to sew and read, but I'll forgo the frustration and opt for steady progress, plugging away a bit at a time, day by day.

About that Safari Rally ...

It's likely I will never pull off another April Fools post like last year's.  I had a few of you for a paragraph or two, but after last year, most of you are on to me.  Still ... imagining the Safari Rally and writing about it was pretty good fun and some of it was true.  Coty did say he'd drive a nicer car and I do love Africa and we did see rally cars plowing through mud in Nyeri province in the early '80's.

The truth is ... for now, we are staying put.

I hung a little plate on the wall yesterday.  I bought it at an antique store near Erin's former home in Hoosick Falls, NY (they arrived in Montana yesterday).  The plate has sailboats in a harbor with colorful houses along the shore. People are waving from the boats.  It's a lovely little plate and it makes me smile to see it.

It reminds me that this home is meant to be a safe haven, a harbour, a port ... for the wandering barks, those children and friends that have sailed away and find their way back here from time to time.  I want them to know that they can always come home and when they do, they will find a warm welcome, a strong hug, a cup of tea, a meal.

Coty and I have been the wandering barks in the past - California, Kenya, Massachusetts, Cameroon.  We've gone to the far away places and lived the adventurous life, at times.  Now, when our nest is emptying, we could contemplate doing it again.  But, we sense that this is a time to be the home port.  It's our children's turn to sail away, and for us to be the settled ones and this place to be the fixed mark.

Not that we won't ever travel or perhaps even live abroad again for some period of time.  But for just now, we are quite content to be right here in NC.

Open invitation, folks.  Come visit Port Pinckney.  We promise porchtime and colorful meals.  Standard fare, here.

Journeys: #3

With so many in our family heading to far away places today, it seemed like a good time to tell you about the next leg in the journey that Coty and I are on - a journey together that has taken us to California, Kenya, the DC area, Massachusetts, back to Kenya three other times, Cameroon, and in the last ten and a half years, North Carolina.

Our nest has emptied in the last few years and with Joel's college decision imminent, the young will all have fledged, spread their wings and flown to various places, near and far.  In the last few months, as Coty and I have anticipated this next stage of life, we have talked long into the night on many occasions about our dreams for the next season.

Years ago, when asked what he would do if he didn't have six children, Coty said, "Drive a nicer car."  We've chuckled about that ever since, looking back on a long succession of mini-vans, massive 15 passenger vans, and inexpensive, but serviceable smaller run-around town used cars.  Coty has never had the opportunity to drive the kind of car he'd truly love to drive, to take curves the way he'd like to, to off-road or travel at the kind of thrilling high speeds he'd love.  That's been part one of the conversation we've been having about being empty nesters.

The second part involves my love of Africa.  In the years 1981, 1991, and 2001, we headed to Africa.  Kenya in '81 and '91, and Cameroon in '01.  I'd always said that I knew where I'd be in 2011 ... somewhere in Africa.  But circumstances made it impossible, as we'd just had two weddings in the previous six months, and well, you know what that means for disposable income.  So, I figured my string of visiting Africa every ten years had come to an end.  But as we've talked and talked about being empty-nesters, Africa kept coming up and my yearning to return has grown stronger and stronger.

And then, it hit us.  Our two longings, nice, fast cars and being in Africa, could merge in a glorious adventure,  something we had actually talked about and witnessed years ago, and something ironically, that we have been able to prepare for while staying put right here in NC!

Friends, we are excited to tell you that this November, Coty and I will be returning to Kenya where we will be participating in the 2013 East African Safari Classic Rally.  The race is from November 21-29, eight grueling days of driving through the wilds of the Kenyan bush in a custom-made Toyota Rally Car. (no, not our Matrix).

When we were in Kenya in '81, visiting friends in Nyeri province, we watched as the rally cars maneuvered and splashed their way through massive mud-holes in the seasonally rain-drenched and washed out rural roads near our friend's village.  We were back in Nairobi by the time the rally ended and even went to the finish line along Uhuru Highway to cheer for winners Shekhar Mehta and co-driver, Mike Doughty in their Nissan Violet GT.

Some of you may remember a trip we took to Arkansas several years ago for the wedding of a friend and the blog post I wrote about our traveling travails.  What you may not realize is that the moment Coty gunned the engine of that rented minivan and plowed his way through the mudhole, he knew that someday he'd return to Kenya and drive in the Rally Classic.  We have secretly nurtured our dream to be in Mehta and Doughty's place, driving the winning rally car, and finally, as soon as we drop Joel off at his dorm room in late August, we'll be on our way!

We'll be following in the footsteps, or I should say muddy tracks, of Travis Pastrana and his female co-driver, Fabrizia Pons, when we embark on this epic adventure of a lifetime!  (Mind you, there are only a few women who have raced the Safari Rally.  It's much harder than anything NASCAR has to offer.  Eat your heart out, Danica Patrick!)



Our team, affectionately nicknamed, BBFAT (those of you who know us will chuckle at those last three letters) stands for Big Birds Fly Away Too.  As I said earlier, we've been able to start preparations right here at home, living so close to Charlotte Motor Speedway and NASCAR teams, with their racing expertise.  We are extremely fortunate to live so close to Harrisburg's own Wood Brothers Racing, whose design gurus and engineering geniuses are helping us build our car.  Anderson Uniforms, also right across the street from Wood Brothers will be designing our custom made rally race suits.  We are also working with a graphic designer here in town on our team logo which will feature the African Cuckoo Hawk (Aviceda cuculoides).  We've been spending so much time right up there at the Caldwell/49 intersection that we've probably tried every possible combination of tea and slushie flavors at the QT.  They got curious as to why we were in there so often and when we told them about the rally, they jumped at the chance to sponsor us.  So, we'll be sporting QT's on our rally helmets and hoping that our race will indeed be a Quick Trip all the way to the finish line.

In other news, it's a gorgeous spring day here today.  Sunny, mid '70's, cherry trees in full bloom, azaleas on the way.

Happy April, everyone!

.

Journeys:#2

Today is a day of journeys in our family.

Erin, Luke, and Clara are on the road for Montana and their new ranch home.  They'll take four long driving days to get there, with stops along the way to see friends and family.

Matthew leaves this evening for a four and half month sojourn to India.  He'll be living in West Bengal and traveling into Bihar state, where he'll work with church planters.

Your prayers for these traveling children of mine are much appreciated.

Journeys: #1

I went to Denver for a week to visit the western branch of the Pinckney clan.  I stayed with Jonathan and Kandyce for 5 of the 7 nights.  I got to attend Kandyce's art therapy class for refugee women twice, walk around Denver University where Jonathan is in graduate school, sew canvas bags for the refugee women with K, and ...

... one evening, we cooked some pretty amazing middle eastern food from this cookbook.

A weekend snowstorm didn't change our plans at all.  It just made the landscape more beautiful.  

I spent 2 nights with Kailie's family and had lots of great time with these two.

On a gloriously sunny Monday morning, Matthew and I went out for breakfast and hiked up to the Castle Rock.  That afternoon, Kandyce, Kailie, and I went thrift store shopping.  I love hanging out with those two!

On Tuesday, all five of us spent the day together. Kailie and I joined Kandyce again for the art therapy class which included printing on the canvas bags we'd sewn for the women.

Then lunch all together at Snooze and a nice loooong walk around Washington Park, where a running snowball fight ensued...

I'm so very thankful for these grown up young men of mine, and a wonderful daughter-in-law and M's special sweetheart that are both gems.  Just wish they weren't so far away!

Thank you, Mr. Zinsser

Long, long ago, say about 20 years ago, there was a little boy with a big imagination and a lot of stories in his head.  His fingers could not keep up with what he wanted to say and he struggled mightily to get it all down on paper.  I read in William Zinsser's book, On Writing Well, that it was OK to allow him to compose on the computer.  This past week, I've been visiting that boy, a grown-up now, and found just the quote I wanted in the copy of Zinsser's book which I gave him some years back:

"For children ... the word processor strikes me as an ideal tool for learning to write.  Children are natural writers - their heads are full of images and wonder and wordplay.  Their motor skills, however, are too slow to get all the wonderful words onto paper, and the words that they do get on paper look childish and clumsy; children, no less than adults, deserve the dignity of having their writing look decent. Pleasure turns to frustration and is often lost forever.  This wouldn't happen if children could tap out their words on a keyboard and see them on a screen, and move the words around, and substitute one word for another, and then have a machine print their composition neatly.  That's writing, as every poet knows - to make words dance for us in all their possible patterns." 

You may chuckle now at my reticence to allow composition on the computer, but you must remember - or if you're not that old, I'll tell you - that back in the day, not every child had a screen perpetually in front of his face.  Some children actually wrote with pencils on paper and when they were done with their schoolwork, they went outside and got dirty in the woods behind the house.  Some of us conscientious parents weren't so sure about how good those machines were for our children.  I mean, really, should I allow my 7 year old to sit in front of that screen for so long?

But Zinsser gave me the go-ahead and so, that little boy wrote his stories on the computer.  Now, he's writing papers in graduate school.  A couple of years ago, on a beautiful hike in the Flatirons near Boulder, he outlined for me the five books he wants to write.  I feel fairly certain he will write them someday.

So, thank you, Mr. Zinsser.

*Note: A collection of blog posts written by William Zinsser for The American Scholar was published in November, 2012 in a book entitled The Writer Who Stayed.  Coty and I are reading it now.