Inspiration, Friendship, and a Challenge

Every morning we have a routine. The dogs must be let out first, no if’s and’s or but’s. Then I can make the coffee, and pour a cup. At my kitchen sink I have a window, nothing unusual about that. And outside the kitchen window is a view of part of my world. Nothing unusual about that either. But the view makes me smile. This is part of what I wake up to look out the window and see every morning.

The view will be changing this fall. After 13 years of existing, my redbud tree has died. It’s been failing for the last couple years and now it’s become dried wood, so I’ll DH and I will be taking it down as soon as the weather cools off a bit. I’ll miss that tree. I threatened it several years ago that if it didn’t start blooming soon, I was going to chop it down…well the next spring that tree was a mass of blossoms! Unfortunately now I will have to chop it down. But I am grateful for every bird that’s sat in its branches cheering me up and every blossom it’s ever had and every leaf of shade it’s made.

Yesterday the art crit group that I am a part of met and we had a great meeting and a wonderful visitor. Every month when this group meets, I leave energized and jazzed up to continue this journey no matter how difficult or uplifting the month may have been. We are a small private group of five. Kind of like a hand, each one of us is different, but we all fit together as a whole. Hi girls!!!! And yesterday Melinda S came to visit us. A wonderful woman with a creative spirit that just exudes from her. If you want some visual inspiration, check out her blog http://melindaschwakhofer.wordpress.com I’m sure you’ll be inspired!

One of the members of our group just returned from a family vacation to England. She brought us all back a challenge! Gorgeous fabric and dyed threads.

Aren’t they GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!! The lighter fabric has darker dots in it that look to me like sunflowers and the darker fabric has gingko leaves and pineapples and all sorts of cool stuff. And then that THREAD…it’s HAND-DYED from South Africa. Well, anyone who knows me knows I am a dyer and I love collecting other dyers materials. Oh and she only put one “rule” on this challenge…..we MUST use the thread! I think she knew I’d hoard it if she didn’t say that!

The table that photo is taken on has layers of significance to me. The table itself was made by my husband and it’s STURDY! It’s almost 2″ thick solid wood on a 6 legged pedestal base and it doesn’t wobble. Even though he made it when his youngest daughter was about 3 (?) and she’s now………well, I won’t tell, but the kids are just into their teenage years!!!! Then the next layer is a glass top. That’s my layer, protective, easy to clean and shiny (I like shiny!). The next layer is a table cloth his mum made. She started it before she passed on and a dear friend of hers finished it for me. Mum told her it was for me, and she knew I had a round table, but mum made a square tablecloth. For a while I didn’t use it, but I kinda like the square tablecloth on the round table analogy.

And of course it’s topped off by quilted placemats. It’s an odd-sized table and regular placemats are too large. So, for an easy set of placemats, I load yardage of fabric on my longarm quilting machine and quilt it all up. Then I cut out placemats to the exact size I need, bind and ta-da I have reversible placemats.

My coffee is done now, and the dogs need taken to the groomer, so I’ve gotta go. Until next time…………………….