needle & thREAD

Ah! Needle & thREAD! I’m so glad to be back. I’ve saved pictures of  this sweet journal cover for nearly a month. I wanted to make something to bring to Sally when I visited. It needed to be light and pack flat. And it had to be pretty.

Ta-dah!

I’ve made journal covers with the girls before, but this one is my very favorite. I combined thoughts from Rachel’s tutorial and this one at Moda Bake shop. The simple embroidery pattern is in the Moda tutorial. I’ve had a Fig Tree Butterscotch and Roses jelly roll sitting on my shelf for nearly three years. A "jelly roll" is a sweet little bundle of 40 precut 2 1/2" X 45" strips that show off all the prints in a collection. It was intended to be a quilt for my father-in-law. He was so excited when I started quilting and said he wanted to come over and make one with me. Alas, it never happened. So, the fabric strips stayed on the shelf in their very pretty little roll until a couple days before I was to leave to Colorado, when I got a burst of inspiration to make an embroidered journal cover to bring to Sally Clarkson when I visited. I’m just so pleased with how it came out! I pulled the fabric from my stash, found embroidery floss from the Anna Maria Horner collection I bought a couple years ago and pieced it together  in a couple days. It was nice to embroider again, even if only a little bit and those sweet flowers just make it all feel special to me. This last minute impulse was one of those times when I was glad to have fabric stashed and to be able to find all the necessary ingredients for a sweet hostess gift without leaving home. A little stash is a good thing, I think. Kind of like a well-stocked pantry on a day when people drop in unexpectedly.

And now that I’ve broken open the roll, feel free to share ideas for what to do with the other 36 strips or so. I figure that I have at least left. I'm sort of challenging myself to see if I can think of how to turn these into teacher's gifts and sew and stash them before September, so that I can know that that part of the Christmas list is finished. There are those very fun towels, but I did those last year.  Please let me know if you have jelly roll ideas (links are a happy thing). And if you don’t have a jelly roll of your own stashed away, look how scrumptious Joanna Figuera’s current line is. doesn't look like there are any jelly rolls left. But then again, there's this one, coming soon. Oh, sew many ideas, so little time;-). 

One of my favorite things about my time at Sally's was getting to know her daughters, Sarah and Joy, a little better. They are such beautiful young women. Each of them gave a talk and I was utterly mesmerized the entire time they spoke. I took copious notes. These girls know their stuff. They're remakably well read and solidly rooted in faith. It is a pleasure to speak with them because they have such a grace about them. One evening, as they were leaving the house to go for a walk together, one of them looked over her shoulder to call back to us in the living room, "Listen to my mom; she's very wise." 

The words sunk deep into my bones. There is no doubt in my mind that Sally is very wise. And what a testimony to have a young adult child spontaneously announce that to a group of women gathered! Sally's book 10 Gifts of Wisdom is her collection of eclectic essays written to answer that quesiton, "How can I raise a gracious competent adult?" It's a quick and very valuable read. I'm still hanging onto every word because, really, I'm grateful to have Sally's words--she's very wise. Sally is offering an econference on the book next week. So, if  you want to curl up with a cup of something warm in your very own living room and litsen to the wise words of Sarah's and Joy's mom, you can totally do that! I'm hoping to be there with you!

What are you sewing and reading this week? I really do want to hear all about it!

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