First off: Happy Father’s Day to the men in your life, and especially the men in mine: my husband, Supreme Quilt Holder, three sons, and one son-in-law, then a gang of grandsons. Here’s a early photo:
(Missing: three more grandsons, three more granddaughters. I just love all those little girls in their beautiful dresses.)
There’s this phenomena about June of every year, when the deserts heat up, drawing cool, moist air further inland from the coast. The locals have a name for it, which I hate. I just call it Reprieve from the Heat for Another Month, or something. because I do love the cool mornings. Yes, I do.
My friend Mary gets too much of this cooling layer and we are always mentioning it in our correspondence, me complaining about the coming heat, and her bemoaning the too-cool summer. Welcome to Sunny California.
So here is my first Posh Penelope for June: all sunny and bright, in a good kind of way.
A little less sunny, but still bright.
Full out fog in these, with all those blues. I’m going to have to ramp up with brighter colors next go-round, but I do like those toothbrushes on the blue fabric.
Here’s the group so far. 41 blocks are planned, and I’ve made 27, more than halfway. But I probably said that last time. You should see Carol’s stack — they are wonderful!!
Here’s Sherri’s Block of the Month for June. It’s a fun series and I’m using all her fabrics (picked up one more new last week). But alas, the Friendship Star and I are NOT friends. Nor do I like these stars:
I also don’t like sour gummies or the smell of coconut shampoo, but I don’t think that has anything to do with quilting.
So I substituted this: I have no idea what Sherri has planned next, so I may be moving other centers of hers around, but since I’m allergic to the star she chose, here’s my spool of thread.
And here’s the back of it. It’s fast: sew the sides on, sewing only between the dots. Then sew from the dots to the corners.
And yes, here’s your free PatternLite. And you’re welcome. Click below the spool to download.
Here are the six I’ve made so far:
This is me, making a mess. It’s good to document messes once in a while. I was learning a new way of making circles. (Last post) I know these photos drives one of my friends crazy; she is a very tidy sewer, but her sewing room is also about 4x as big as mine; a lot of stuff gets piled up in mine. I have learned to focus and ignore the periphery, a skill I learned when I had four small children and had to get the quilt done:
Like this one, from the Early Years. My son Chad now has this Sunshine and Shadow quilt — somewhere, he says — but even if it’s lost in his attic, I still have photos. Machine-pieced, hand quilted with a layer of flannel inside…not batting.
For a fun click, head to this write-up of the kimono exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia. The article shows both traditional and more modern kimono.
I think I kind of jumped the shark a couple of posts ago, writing about sewing nightgowns and stuff, but things are going better this week. The New York Times must have known I needed a creative tune-up, and published a five-day “Creativity Challenge.” (If you don’t subscribe, here’s a link to the first article.) In it they note that “Research links creativity to happiness and well-being, and a 2021 study found that older people who participated in creative activities showed less cognitive decline than those who did not” (Passarella, NYTimes).
In an earlier missive, Elizabeth Passarella, the writer, said “You are all creative in some way. There’s a definition of creativity that researchers use: generating something novel that is also useful.”
Generating something novel that is also useful. I need to print that out and tape it to my sewing machine. The first exercise was doodling:
We had to begin with a circle and go from there. I’m do not consider myself a hand-drawing-artist, so I did the best I could with a screen and a mouse. Don’t know where that second drawing came from–maybe from the state of politics in our nation today (doesn’t it make you crazy, too?).
So take a listen to Amie McNee if you need a shot of “why should I create.” Her TEDx talk was something I happened on this week, and I found inspiration in many things she said [words in brackets are mine]:
We need to be at the piano [or the sewing machine] making our art more than ever as we navigate these incredibly difficult things. Art is not just for kids; art is not just for adults…we need it now. [One reason is that] creativity is the missing pillar of self-development. [Another reason is that] when we create, we have agency.
Another beautiful reason to create is because it reclaims your most valuable resource…our attention in a society that profits from you being stuck on your phone. We are a culture of consumption and we’ve forgotten how to make. We need less consumption, more creation.
The act of making art is inherently generous.
I’ve been slowly working on this. There are a lot of thread changes, and some unpicking, as it’s been a while since I was at the quilting machine. I don’t quilt every day, so I like to keep track with the labels.
That plastic bag in the Messy Room photo? I pulled it off this pile of gorgeous goodness from Stash Fabrics. I wish I could say I was influenced by all the pansies I saw in Krakòw, but the truth is I ordered these before I went. But maybe I could see into the future?
In the NYTimes creative series mentioned above, I especially liked how they talked about a form of daydreaming:
“You’ll be more likely to capture original ideas if you’re in “atypical salience processing mode,” which is a fancy term for a state in which you’re focusing on the unconventional. Look at a piece of abstract art, or stare out your window in a way you usually don’t, paying attention to the space between buildings or the shadows formed by trees.”
(You can read the article with this gift link: here)
Happy Day Dreaming!
Layer your summer salad into a bowl:
- Cook a cob of corn in the microwave, wrapped in wax paper, for 4 minutes. Run under cool water to cool it down then slice off the cob.
- Tomatoes (smaller and flavorful like Campari tomatoes)
- Romaine lettuce, sliced
- Bit of arugula
- Radish chunks
- Cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced 1/3″ thick
- Chunks of rotisserie chicken
- Focaccia (my favorite recipe is here — I make it every other Saturday night (10 minutes to whip it up in the evening and in the morning, 10 minutes to prep for the baking, plus rising time).
- Drizzle Lemon Vinaigrette over everything.
Anywhere you travel in Europe, they call arugula “rocket” for some reason. Here’s a little joke for you from the internet.
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Love, love love the Posh Penelope blocks. I’ll definitely take the sunny blocks over the foggy ones. lol. We actually woke up to a strange bright light rising in the East this morning! Hope that’s the end of the gloom. Your Sherri blocks are looking so nice too. Who knew there was such a think as an allergy to different blocks. I guess I have no allergies.
Oh wow, maybe you could see into the future; the pansy prints are lovely and a good reminder of your trip. I think the spool block is a great substitute for the friendship star. And hooray for cool nights/mornings. It’s best to savor all the sweetness we can these days.
So much to comment on…I love your Posh Penelope blocks! You have such a lovely range of low volume fabrics, two with bees! I wonder whether you would like my review of the Kimono exhibition at the NGV? I am going to see it soon, in preparation of my trip to Japan in September. I think I will check out that Tedtalk; it sounds interesting! We here downunder call arugula ‘rocket’ too! My favourite salad is rocket, pear, walnut, balsamic vinegar and blue cheese! Those stash fabrics look lovely. I wonder what you will create with them. (Maybe I should have numbered my comment like Carol) Happy sewing! S
That salad looks delicious. I need to eat more veggies. So many things to link to in this post. I’ll be down the rabbit hole soon. I just love the notion that doing creative activities results in less cognitive decline. I need all the help I can get. At least I already have all the motivation I need for the projects on my to do list. The list seems endless but in a good way. Have a great week.
Six more grandies since that photo was taken?! I’m sure you agree that it’s time for a new group picture! Though I can imagine how difficult it will be, trying to get everyone together at one time. You have a beautiful family, and are blessed.
Love, love, love seeing your Posh blocks! You know, you have motivated me to revisit mine. I spent this past weekend working on that project. I had made only two blocks when I set the project aside more than a year ago. Now I’ve got all the remaining 40 blocks cut out (Boy-o, did that cutting nearly deplete my neutral/low volume prints!) and have begun your suggestion of assembly line making. I’m cutting and sewing four blocks at a time. Nothing to show yet though, except marathon hours spent cutting out all the pieces. I like seeing that you not only paired the fans (You referred to them as toothbrushes?) but you also mixed them up. I’m thinking about doing that now too.
Thanks for sharing your messy room! Ahh. I feel better now. The amount of space each of us has, makes a big difference in how we work! Also, though I shouldn’t, I love the fabrics you bought from Stash Fabrics. Great colors and designs.
I really appreciate you sharing what you’re doing. You’re inspiring!
I enjoyed those links! And gloom doesn’t get us very far–need to fight instead of mope 😀
Thank you for such an inspiring post – I loved every single bit of it!!! I saw the creativity article in the Times and forgot to bookmark or get back to it, so thanks for the reminder! I couldn’t agree more with the immense power of creating, especially in such a fractured, often heartless and dangerous world. It’s certainly one of my joys🌞.