Needle and ThREAD #30

I have spent hours and hours in my sewing room in this week.  One major project was started and a small project completed.  I can't show you the big project, but I can show you the small one.  It was for the "Swap for Someone You Love" for my quilt guild this month.

Here's the description of the person for whom I was sewing:

"Just diagnosed with breast cancer.  She's a massage therapist and works in Florida ... a beautiful, good spirit.  Loves: blues - sky, water, the day, things that hang on the wall and sparkle."

So this is what I made, using ... what else ... sari fabrics and some other Indian fabrics in my stash from our trip there in 2009.

I didn't know when I was ever going to use those sparkles in the fabric, but if you hold on to something long enough, eventually you use it, right?  That's what most of us with growing fabric stashes think, anyway!

We made fabric flowers in our sewing class this week.  Easy and lots of fun.  We'll be doing more of them.

Something else that made me really happy is that this precious woman brought in a large piece of fabric that her daughter in Thailand sent to her.  It is a traditional Burmese wrap that is worn in dress-up type situations. SA brought it to class to finish it by sewing on the top border strip and then sewing it into a long tube.  SA has probably had the hardest time of any of our students with using the machine, but on Tuesday, she was full of confidence as she sewed her wrap.

Of course, we made her model it when she was finished.  I find her t-shirt poignant.  On one level, it cracks me up.  Most women her age would not choose a t-shirt with that wording, but she speaks very little English, so she probably has no idea what it says.  It was free, though - probably from a clothes closet somewhere -and she chose it because it fit and she liked the color.  Every time I'm with them, these women make me want to laugh and cry.  

The Sari Bari 2013 Quilt Auction preview is up now.  I'll be back later with a link!

Reading, reading ...

Finishing Little Daughter

Started Pen Wilcock's latest, The Breath of Peace and Christian Wiman's My Bright Abyss

and perusing David Tanis's A Platter of Figs