Savoring moments; enjoying the process

Hello, Friends!  It has been so long since I have shared with you, and yet time is going by so quickly right now!  And it goes by faster and faster every day!  

My daughter is getting married!  I know you know that, but -- WOW -- my baby girl is getting married! She has always been such a joy and inspiration to me, and now she is marrying the perfect man.  I am overwhelmed with peace and by God's blessings!  

 Peter and Molly

I am trying to grab hold of every single moment and savor it!

Last night I hosted a special bridesmaids' dinner to honor Molly and her bridesmaids and so many other fabulous friends and family members who have been and continue to be so helpful (e.g., throwing showers, making crafts, hosting an address labeling party, etc.).   What a joy to experience so much love and support and to be able to celebrate with those you love.

You may remember my little gathered clutch obsession from last summer.  

Well, I can now make them in my sleep and hope you enjoy sharing a little in the process.

Soul Blossoms fabrics by Amy Butler.

Cutting and strip piecing fabrics (Soul Blossoms and Essex linen cotton blend in natural).

 Prepared patchwork strips for front exteriors.

Gathering the Essex linen cotton blend (natural) for the front exteriors.

Press - sew - press.

It's all about the assembly line...

...carefully saving strips, for which Molly will find 101 uses...

...and sewing and sewing and sewing.
The gathered clutches are a modification of a tutorial by Anna at Noodlehead.

Molly "helped" me with the invitations by pretty much conceiving the idea and making them for me while I sewed clutches.  In less than an hour she went from idea to invitations ready to be mailed!

The gathered clutches were stuffed with a few goodies (hand sanitizer, lip gloss, chocolates, tissues, an emery board, and a few mints).

 

 My crafty Miss Molly also made these cute place cards (one of many uses of the leftover fabric strips).

 

Looks good!  It must be time to pack up and go!

 

 

The Venetian Theatre and Bistro, Hillsboro, Oregon

Step this way...

 Molly's beautiful tablescape
I mostly just watched and handed her things as needed.

 Another use for leftover fabric strips: Molly tied a strip on each mason jar of white tulips.

 Beautiful friends and family.

 Lots of laughter!

The end of a perfect evening!

In other big news, guess who started a crafty blog!?!?  Molly!
You can follow the wedding plans, events, and creativity here.  And I plan on making a quilter out of that girl yet!  You watch. You wait.  You'll see.

With wishes true and kind -- Joan

Create! Days 24 & 25

A week ago Friday, my husband said he was looking forward to the three day weekend.  I just smiled and said that I was looking forward to my nine day weekend.  Yes, I've had the whole week off and tried to squeeze in as much sewing as possible. In fact, the more days off, the more time I've spent creating (at the expense of other things).  And my husband is such an enabler!  For example, early in the week I served him a lovely, home-cooked meal by candlelight.  Last night we had take out, bless his heart!  I promise when I post this I'll go do a little laundry, a little housework, and actually get that roast in the oven that I had planned on serving last night. 

We woke up to snow yesterday morning.

 

These first two photos were taken from my front door.

These last two photos were taken from the door leading to the back deck.

 

 I've always loved shots of quilts in the snow, but either we don't have any snow, I don't have a new quilt to photograph, or I just plain forget to take advantage of the photo op.  So -- I grabbed the quilt block I had finished on Tuesday, ran outside, and re-photographed it in the snow. 

 This block is a variation of a pillow made by Tacha in Issue 1 of Fat Quarterly.

 In between sewing, I can't help but fold more fabric (a la Jeni).

 Jeni even added me to her blog post showing neatly folded fabrics from reader's stashes.

 Here are a few peeks at another little project I've been working on today.

And I started making hexies for Megan's (Lucy and Norman) Bee Hexed In block.

Megan asked for jewel tones, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of these jewels in the snow.  I've been waiting all day for the sun to hit the back deck so I could take the shot, and I think it's been worth the wait.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Create! Days 9 - 23

Oops!  I really meant to keep up with the blogging end of this month of daily creating....  And now the month is almost over!  At times I've found it really hard to sneak in even 15 minutes of sewing (and often feel that I should have made it 15 minutes of housework a day).  Other days, just getting started has led to hours of stitching.  Sometimes I've just worked on "creating" a more organized, functional, and attractive sewing space, and sometimes I've worked on a couple of special projects that I'm not able to share just now.  And then there's the wedding planning....

 

The wedding colors are gray and yellow and white, and I'm still collecting fabrics.  A few of these yellows actually read as fairly orange in this photo.  

I've been gathering pictures of sewing studio inspiration on Pinterest and am carefully considering creative  and functional ways of storing fabric.  Of course, this often starts with folding fabric properly.  Yesterday I came across this post by Jeni, with videos of fabric folding, which inspired me to give it a try.

So these piles

became these stacks.

I love it because all of the different sized cuts of fabric are folded into the same size/shape.  

This is the best folding I've even done, if I do say so myself.  

How do you fold/store your fabric?

Tonight I put the finishing stitches on this Bee Hexed In block for Brooke (april two eighty).

Hope you like it, Brooke!

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan