"When Laurel was a child,

in this room and in this bed where she lay now, she closed her eyes like this and the rhythmic, nighttime sound of the two beloved reading voices came rising in turn up the stairs every night to reach her.  She could hardly fall asleep, she tried to keep awake, for pleasure.  She cared for her own books, but she cared more for theirs, which meant their voices.  In the lateness of the night, their two voices reading to each other where she could hear them, never letting a silence divide or interrupt them, combined into one unceasing voice and wrapped her around as she listened, as still as if she were asleep.  She was sent to sleep under a velvety cloak of words, richly patterned and stitched with gold, straight out of a fairy tale, while they went reading on into her dreams."

-from The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

  

Needle and thREAD #5: Yep, still that Sari Bari quilt!

Seems all I do around this bloggy space these days is pop in for a moment or two.  I've got a couple of quilt pictures to show you and then I'm headed off to camp!  Coty, Matthew, and I will join Thomas and Kay at Camp Caraway for a staff/family overnight. (Thomas is the assistant director this summer and Kay is working at the girl's camp across the road).  Looking forward to dinner and breakfast with T and K and a bit of camp time this weekend.

We gathered again on Thursday to work on the quilt.  Andrea joined Amber and me this week and finished her first square.  Kristin came a little later and we got a few more done.  We're up to 22 squares now - only 14 to go.  I'm aiming to finish the piecing in a week!

    The kitchen table strewn with strips, ready for piecing

And for reading ...

The same as last week, except that I have started The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty.

That's all for now.  Off to camp!

Needle and ThREAD #4: The Sari Bari quilt, continued

We are making good progress on the Saribari quilt.  Kristin came over on Monday and we finished fusing interfacing to our brown fabric and cut out the rest of the triangles we will need for our squares. After I ironed on the interfacing, Kristin cut out the triangles.  I love that some of them will have bits of gold thread in them.  Can you see the one on the ironing board?

Today was supposed to be another work day with friends but I started getting a cold last night, so I called it off.  Instead, I worked quietly and steadily, choosing strips and sewing.  I finished four more squares so now we have 15 of the 36 we'll need for the quilt.  It's coming along!

My reading list for this week is the same as last week.  Reading Eudora Welty on the porch on a summer morning seems just right.

In addition to the books, I watched Wives and Daughters while I sewed today.  I "read" the book last year ... meaning I listened to it (thanks to librivox.org) while I walked.  The movie is a freebie on Amazon Prime and I enjoyed it ... a good thing to do on a laying low kind of day.

Running when you are tired ...

Yesterday when I went for that run, it was hot.  Really hot.  And since, as I told you, I'm not a runner, I got tired.  Fast.  I kept telling myself, "Keep going. Running when you are tired makes stronger."

There's a story ...

Long ago, waaay back between his junior and senior years in college,  Coty took a year off to teach math and English at a harambee school in rural Kenya.  In addition to teaching, he coached the runners. One afternoon, he was making his team do an interval workout.  He urged them to do one more and the students protested that they were tired.

"Running when you are tired makes you stronger," he told them.

"No, Mwalimu*," said one weary athlete, "running when we are tired only makes us more tired!"

Well, I was tired yesterday when I got done, but pretty happy with the effort.  I was also very thankful for a husband who not only helps me plan workouts, but biked over to meet me halfway through the workout yesterday with water and encouragement.

And, I was mighty glad today was a pool workout day!

__________________
*Mwalimu is the Swahili word for teacher

Out the door ...

on a hot afternoon for a walk/run.  I'm trying to psych myself up to do some intervals.  That's what my trainer, aka Coty,  is telling me I should do to improve my speed.  I can walk forever and for a walker, I can be fast, but running is a different story.  I'm slow - quite a plodder, really.  But, that just means there's a lot of room for improvement.

OK, here goes.  The wonderful thing is that when I get all hot and sweaty, there's the deliciously cool water of the pool awaiting!  

I love ...

everything about my new bike, right down to the swirly design on the top tube.

I also love cycling with Coty, who sets a quick pace when he's in the lead and gives me a challenge.  I'm happy to say the Trek and I are up to it!  14 miles on the Greenway today, along the creeks in the dappled shade with a little sprint at the end.  That's a good way to get started in this week in which I will ...

... ramp up my training goals.  I have the great good fortune to be married to a life-long athlete who understands how to mix hard workouts with rest days, speed with endurance.  He's never done a triathlon, but he knows how to train and he's good at analyzing what needs work.  He can determine where I'm weakest and help me train effectively.  He'll be my biggest encourager. 

 So, here we go.  It's a tri-training summer.  

Needle and ThREAD #3: The Sari Bari quilt

The work has begun on our Saribari quilt.  I mentioned it in my last Needle and ThREAD post and now I have more to show and tell.

Together with a few friends, we have begun the quilt.  I decided after talking with a woman at the quilt shop at the beach about this project, that we should stabilize the sari fabric before cutting and sewing it.  It is quite thin, quite fragile fabric.  I want this quilt to last for whoever gets it, so last week we began the preparatory process of ironing fusible interfacing to back to lengths of fabric before we cut.  At first, I thought this might be rather tedious, but I have enjoyed every moment standing at the ironing board, smoothing fabric, feeling the texture, discovering the little inconsistencies in block printed designs and dying, getting to know our material.

After the interfacing is fused, we cut strips in a variety of widths, from 1 1/2 to 3 inches.  From our neutral fabric, a lovely light brown with white strands of thread woven throughout and squares of gold thread in sections, we cut 17 1/2 inch squares.  The squares are cut diagonally to yield two triangles of fabric.

Kristin cutting strips.  The gridded mat, ruler, and rotary cutter are indispensable tools.

Once we have our triangles and strips, we begin piecing.  Strips are sewn to the triangle, starting at the long edge and chosen at random.  It has been fun for me to see how each of the women working with me proceeds with this process.  One is more intuitive, another slowly examines color and pattern and carefully eyes the combinations.  I sit at the machine, waiting to be handed the pieces, which I stitch together.  Seams are ironed, more strips added, and soon we have a finished square.  

First one finished!

Thursday we had a quilt work day.  Carla came, with Noelle.

and Amber, with James and Elijah, who fell asleep on the sewing room floor!

We have completed 11 of 36 squares so far and have a design decision to make.

Chevrons ...

 Diamonds ...

or something else?  

We're going to finish the squares and then play with the possibilities!

 The sewing room looks rather like a sari bomb exploded, with lengths of fabric, scraps and trimmed edges of squares everywhere and snipped threads on the floor.  As Amber sat in the corner chair nursing Elijah, while Krisin and I stitched, she said, "This is a happy room."

Indeed!


Since this is a Needle and ThREAD post, I must tell you what I'm reading:

Stories, Essays, and Memoir by Eudora Welty

Bioethics: A Primer for Christians by Gilbert Meilaender

Beauty Will Save the World by Brian Zahnd

and a couple of lovely library books on shade gardening.

Those are the books I'm dipping into ... but truth to tell ... mostly, I'm sewing!

Hearing Makoto

We walked into the old house that serves as a guest house now.  The kitchen was full of acquaintances, people I've seen from previous Childlight conferences, names on nametags that I recognize.  Bonnie's cheerful, gregarious husband, Ken, greeted us and we made our way on in.  Friends were here, an intimate, eager, earnest gathering.

After a few more greetings, a glass of red wine and a few little treats, we moved to the living room where Makoto Fujimura was introduced to us by the woman who made this gathering possible.  I've said it before, but I must say again that I am deeply grateful to Bonnie for making this gathering, this visit by Mako a reality.  Her vision of inviting him to the conference was the spark. 

Bonnie introducing Mako on Thursday night

Thursday night's keynote talk, Culture Care: Creating a Cultural Ecosystem for the thriving of art, culture and humanity was a bit like standing under a waterfall.  Mako's words flowed with refreshing strength and beauty as he spoke of the paintings for the Four Holy Gospels, his work with International Arts Movement, bringing hope, and the creativity that each of us has to offer.

Photos of the Four Gospels Frontispieces, displayed as he talked about them

The impression of Mako's compassion and humility and these words have stayed with me most:

"Today we have a language to celebrate waywardness.  What we do not have is a language - a cultural language - to bring people back home.  Everything I do has something to do with that."

Illuminated letters from the Four Holy Gospels, 

the last slide displayed during his talk.

I gasped at the colors and the beauty 

and then, of course, 

thought quilt!

In and out

I'm just popping in here for a moment to tell you that I'm back from a wonderful, wonderful week at the beach with my family.  It couldn't have been better ... well, maybe if it had been longer and if some folks had been able to stay the whole week.  But, no complaints here.  We had a week full of fun and games, beautiful beach weather, sunning, swimming, reading, relaxing, eating, laughing (a LOT of laughing), serious conversation, a little bit of work, walking, running, rides in the golf cart, putt-putt, playground visits, and more.

It's the first time in a very long time that our family has gotten together just to be together, without celebrating a wedding or holiday.  What a pleasure to have a week stretched out before us to relax together and enjoy each other without a deadline or a zillion things to do.  Such a gift!

How about a few pictures ...

I said "popping in" at the top because I'm headed out this evening to the 2012 Childlight Conference at Gardner Webb.  I have the privilege of leading a session tomorrow on science, specifically on ways to do science in the younger years that prepares students well for more meaningful, rigorous high school science.  I'm most excited, though, about hearing Makoto Fujimura speak.

Special thanks go to my friend, Bonnie, who was the driving force behind getting Makoto to come to the conference.  It promises to be a very special time.

So, I'll be back next week, happily moving into a summer routine that will, I hope, be slower than the previous months!