A Gift From My Brother

A box arrived in the mail.  I knew it was coming.  My brother sent it to celebrate the birth of Henry and future little Lynchs.  When I opened it, I started to cry. 

These sweaters were made by my Mother about 60 years ago.  My Mother has been gone for 20 years and I still miss her.  We have very few family heirlooms since my parents grew up during the Depression. I am the baby of the family.  I  knew she knitted sweaters for my brother and sister, but by the time I came along, my parents had achieved the status of the middle class.  My Mother then spent more time shopping than knitting. Back then handmade was homemade, and it had a stigma to it. I sadly never saw anything that she created.

It's hard to explain how I felt when I opened the box and picked up each sweater and touched the yarn that she had touched.  The sweaters were in such good shape and they were gorgeous.

 It was such a hear felt moment for me.

This was my Brother's gift for my grandson.  I really have no idea of how the sweaters came into his possession nor how he tracked them down. But he knew how much this work of our Mother's hands would mean to me. It was the utmost gift of love.  I never knew she was so talented. 

This is the only one that needs a little TLC - a new zipper and a little stain removal. 

I look forward to being a part of our family history.

Henry will have to share these if there are future cousins and siblings, but I don't think he'll mind. 

 I am sure I will cry again when I see my Mother's hands keeping my grandchild(ren) warm.

The Best Thank You Ever

 This little girl was the recipient

of the quilt I wrote about in my post, "Pretty In Pink". 

These photos are from the "thank you" photo shoot! (Elyse's idea, the budding model.)

 

A picture (and a smile) is definitely worth a thousand words. 

 

The Enchantment of Silk

I tend to go through phases with interests, with food and even with quilting.  I have been in a dupioni silk phase for a while.  It is a beautiful, elegant fabric albeit with certain challenges.  The biggest challenge is that it frays even if you just look at it cross eyed. 

 

Dupioni is a coarsely woven fabric that should not be displayed in the sun. Since it is woven there is no right or wrong side.   Washing it removes the sheen and the sizing.  It needs to be stabilized for piecing.   A light weight woven  fusible stabilizer is the best. 

 

This is my most recent silk piece.

It is not quilted yet.

This is one of my most favorite silk pieces:

It's called "Roundabout".

 

I have been teaching dupioni silk workshops with great success this year. 

 In one day, quilters have learned how to tame this difficult but beautiful fabric.  Part of the beauty of it is the way it changes color depending on how the light hits it 

and the slubs add a wonderful texture.

 

I decided to design kits to share this amazing fabric.  The kits use various techniques to learn how to manipulate it.  I've named them Silk Samplings.  They measure 12"x12" and each kit contains everything needed to finish the wallhanging except for the thread and a sewing machine. Right now there are 3 different designs and they are available in a limited amount in my etsy Shop called Sewing With Silk.

 

 "Chrysanthemum"
This kit includes the dupioni silk, cotton for the backing and the binding, interfacing for stabilizing the silk, paper backed fusible web, batting, the pink velvet for the center
and the pattern with directions.  It focuses on fusible applique.

 "Hardware"
This kit includes the dupioni silk, interfacing for stabilizing the silk, cotton for the backing and binding, batting, paper backed fusible web, all the embellishments and the pattern and directions.
The focus of this kit is piecing and embellishing.

"Whimsy"

The kit includes the dupioni silk, interfacing for stabilizing the silk, batting, cotton for the backing and the batting, buttons, paperbacked fusible web, the pattern and directions.  The focus is on creating fusible applique from the silk. 

 

They all can be finished in a day and are a great entrée into the world of silk and would make a beautiful gift.  Since this is an initial offering and there is a very limited amount, act fast. But, contact me if they are sold out before you get a chance to purchase the one of your choice. I will be making up more kits depending on demand.

 

My shop: www.etsy.com/shop/SewingWithSilk

 

 

 

Choose To Fuse

I unpacked my bags from my visit to the West Milford Heritage Quilters and found my camera.  West Milford, NJ is not far from NYC but you would never know it from the beautiful countryside.  It's in the mountains and the colors of Fall were all around.  I definitely knew I was in the mountains when I woke up in the morning to a very chilly 40 degrees. 

We had a wonderful space for our workshops thanks to the connection that the Program Chairperson has with the local church. She's the pastor there!  The workshop was about machine fusible applique - all the ways that I use it in my quilts.  I use this bird sampler I designed as our pattern:

I share 7 different techniques, including binding.  I joke that it's applique bootcamp, but it really is.  By the end of the workshop each quilter knows which settings to use on their machine and which techniques they like the best. 

For the nest block, we all shared our brown scraps.  They made beautiful bird's nests. We placed all our blocks on the floor to make a "quilt".  It looked great, and it was fun.

 

Plus, I had a wonderful surprise.  One of the members, Andrea, also belongs to the Warwick Quilt Guild.  She took my workshop there called "Inspiration From Mexican Tiles" in 2011, and she brought the quilt to show me. Yay!

 

 

Sunday In The Saddle

After 2 days away teaching In West Milford, NJ, I decided I didn't want to spend 3 hours on the road on my bike today.  So I went to my alternate cycling place - the gym- for a spinning class with my buddies.  I used to turn up my nose at cycling indoors, but I am now addicted and find that it has made me a much stronger rider.  I love the music and have learned about singers that I had never heard of before, like Pitbull.

Terry, Sue and Joanne at Absolute Imagine Fitness.  The empty bike is waiting for me.
Our instructor, Krissy, is shy.

As soon as I unpack my bags from my trip and find my camera, I'll share photos of the wonderful quilters from West  Milford.  It will be soon because tomorrow night I am heading to the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild in the Pocono Mountains. I'm looking forward to the drive, because of the changing color of the leaves. If you're in the area, stop by to see a bunch of my quilts.

Sunday In The Saddle

My favorite bicycle rides are when I have a destination. It gives me a purpose and it's a good feeling to be car-free. The destination this Sunday was to go to visit my grandson, Henry.  He lives in the East Falls section of Philadelphia.  The Schuykill River Trail is my choice of route.  Why? Because there are no cars and I can ride with bailey in my basket.

 

This is what I found when my DH went to drop us off at the Betzwood Trailhead.

It was closed!

The parking for the trailhead is part of the Valley Forge National Park. 

I just don't get it.  It's a parking lot with a couple of picnic tables.  For Pete's sake.

Thank you to all those hard "working politicians" who are acting like children 

and can't compromise to come to an agreeable solution.  I don't make it a practice of voicing my political views, and this closed parking lot is nothing compared to what some people are going through, but I say, VOTE THEM ALL OUT!!! 

Anyway, there was an office building on the other side of the road with access to the trail.  Yay!

 

It was a heck of a ride with an unbelievable head wind. I wish I had been riding in the other direction. (The wind at your back makes you feel like you could ride the Tour de France.)

 Even Bailey was not happy.  She sat facing me most of the ride.

 

I met my hubby a few miles from East Falls.  We swapped Bailey (who has not met Henry yet) for Suzy Joe's absolutely delicious donuts.

I earned one after that bike ride.

 With the box of donuts in my basket, I headed off to finish my ride.

 to my final destination

where a  wonderful reward was waiting inside.

 

Stats:

Jersey: Just regular clothes on my hybrid

Miles:17.2 (approximate)

Avg mph:??

Time in the saddle:????

Real time: 2 Hours

Why all the ????? Because someone, I'm not saying who, was trying to remount my computer and zeroed it out! Hrmph...  That computer is sacred to me.  But I guess I will forgive him.  He did bring the donuts.

 

Pomegranates

Yesterday I was in a bit of a punky mood.  Was it because it was raining and grey here in Eastern Pennsylvania or am I having Henry withdrawal?  To lift my mood, I re-visited the photos I took during a recent workshop.  The workshop was titled "Chic Shin".

I designed it especially for this group based on my Embellished Beauties,

 using lots of silk, beads, sequins and buttons.

Shin is a Hebrew letter that stands for  many wonderful aspects of Judaism.

 

This was the biennial convention of the Pomegranate Guild for Jewish Needlework and this year they met in Philadelphia, so I was very lucky to be invited to teach. The guild is named after the pomegranate because it is a significant symbol with a rich history in ancient Jewish culture.  In addition tradition says that there are 613 seeds inside of one and this corresponds to  613 good deeds, or commandments.  (I don't know of anyone who has counted!)This beautiful fruit also grows abundantly in Israel.  Many of the ladies wore beautiful pomegranate jewelry.

 

I had a great group of ladies in my class that came from all over the country - California, New Mexico, Long Island and of course lots from NJ and PA. Here we all are at the closing dinner:

It looks like they all had a good time.

I met a bunch of quilters that I have gotten to know on-line.

Diane, Cathy and Me

 

Plus I got to meet Lauree Feigenbaum.

Lauree is the owner of 1-800-Dreidel. 

It's an on-line site that carries lots of Judaic crafts and fabric, including my patterns.

 I have done business with her for over 10 years and we had never met.

 

I provided kits for the project and I have a few extra. It includes all of the materials along with directions.  If you would like one, visit my etsy shop called "Sewing With Silk".  

 Hurry, because I don't think they will last very long.

You can find my book there also that has a lot of other embellished projects. 

 

Rumor has it that the next meeting in 2015 will be in Arizona.

Keep tuned.