after the storm

We were so very fortunate this time, unlike our neighbors along the shore and beyond.  We lost two old apple trees, and that was the worst of it.  As I watched the devastation along the Jersey shore I felt guilty that I was warm and dry.  Today I will gather together some warm items that our local church will distribute to those who lost everything.  It's not much, but if everyone would do one small thing to help ... imagine.

I made my coffee and walked upstairs to my sewing room.  The early morning light was exquisite.  Saturday mornings are a gift - doesn't everything look better in Saturday morning light?

Sometimes I will work late into the night on Fridays just because I CAN!  I'll stumble into bed and when I rise I am 
often surprised at the progress I made the night before! Not to mention the mess!

A very wonderful and deserving couple recently adopted a beautiful baby and I am making this little piece for them. It will have 3-D pinwheels cheerfully dotting the borders when finished.  I used one of my favorites - so sparingly as it is almost gone and irreplaceable -

The measure, I think, of an excellent design - one that is as fresh and relevant today as it was 10 years ago when selected for the first time! I'd love to start a petition to bring this one back. 

 I think about fabric, I daydream about it, and recently have started drawing - making thumbnail illustrations - designs that I would like to see produced.  This is on my Bucket List - to have my own line of fabric.  Dreams need space in which to germinate, to develop into strong sturdy reality and I give mine tenderness, encouragement and as much square footage as I can spare!

Christmas is just around the corner.  I'd like to be ready this season, but if I do manage to finish my gifts, it will be a first.  Still, a large portion of the joy, for me, is the time spent working with my holiday fabrics and ideas.  Many will never see the light of day, others will be prettily wrapped under the tree.  The process is the beauty part.