Hello, friends! It’s been ages since I blogged, and I have missed you! This rainy Sunday morning seemed like the ideal time to catch up a bit. That is the view from my bedroom window as I write this. The rain is falling steadily. I know that some, hoping for a sunny, summery Memorial Day weekend to start off the summer, are disappointed. Me, I love rainy days so I am clearly living in the right place. 

Rainy days are perfect for what I call “slow sewing”… that sort of sewing that involves lots of pieces and careful matching of parts and seams. I have “Swoon 16” in the works and will be working on it later today.

I did officially open the deck for the season about a week ago, and I am looking forward to lounging and reading out there soon. But not today. And, I should add, it started raining about 3 hours after I took this photo so I had to quickly cover everything up again.

I’ve had a busy few months, which is in part why I’ve not posted. A few weeks ago, I was in Northern California to attend my regular quilt retreat and to work with my sister on getting my dad’s house ready to sell. 

The drive to and from Sonoma County was beautiful - everything was lush and green and blooming. I listened to engaging audio books on the way — “Listen for the Lie” by Amy Tintera on the way south, and “Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett on the way home. Both were wonderful. I think I’d like Meryl Streep to read aloud to me every day. I now have two excellent fabric store stops on the way, for a perfect stop to stretch my legs and look at pretty quilty things. I can highly recommend Sisters Quilt Shop in Chehalis, Washington and Sew Simple in Redding, California for enjoyable road breaks. 

While in California, I had a lovely time with my sister and friends. It is an odd thing to dismantle your parents’ longtime home, I must say. One of my tasks was to pack up my dad’s collection of metal die cast cars. My dad and brother, both hardcore car and racing fans, had big collections and they have been an omnipresent feature of life with my parents. Packing them up was emotional, to be sure. It was also amusing. My dad had a love affair? Obsession? With Ferraris, and with red race cars in general … and as a result had quite a few in his collection. How many red race cars does a collector need?

I was happy to be in California just when my longtime friend and quilting inspiration Janet Shore celebrated her 100th birthday. I’ve known her for 20 years or so, and I’ve been amazed and inspired by her curiosity, enthusiasm, and genuine interest in other people for all of that time. Her family threw a big party for her, and it was a lovely afternoon with quilters and quilting icons from all over California in attendance. 

I was so happy to see Janet, especially as she looked happy and healthy.

My regular quilt retreat at the Bishop’s Ranch in Healdsburg was fun as always. When I first started attending — also 20 years ago — Caroline was in early elementary school and retreats provided a big block of time where I could focus on creating and getting things done. Now that I’m retired (yay!) I have a lot of creative time, and retreats are about catching up with treasured friends. So, despite my having packed three separate quilting projects and my watercolor kit, I got only part of one quilt sewn, and did one small painting, and spent the rest of the time visiting. It was lovely.

Speaking of visiting, I had a happy 24 hours with fellow Twelve by Twelve artist Brenda Gael Smith who was in Washington for a brief visit. We reminisced about our Twelve by Twelve experience, how it was blogging that introduced us to each other initially, and marveled about how far reaching that project has been. A few months ago, a collection of our quilts was made part of the permanent collection of the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska and has been on display there. We truly had no idea how big our challenge project would become and how far our artwork would travel. 

Meanwhile, between the usual life chores and managing the endless paperwork connected with my parent’ estate, I’ve been finding a lot of time for quilting. I had fun making two quilts for WAIF, Whidbey Island’s animal shelter network, which were recently auctioned at its big fundraising event. I had such cute dog and cat fabric that I had to make a dog quilt AND a cat quilt.

I really had fun giving each cat its very own face.

And there has been “fast sewing,” too — quick but fun projects for gift baby quilts and donation quilts. 

It’s amazing how much one can get done when work isn’t getting in the way.