Since 1981, we have occupied seven homes. In every single one, if the kitchen was in bad shape and we could afford it, we renovated it. The children and I were talking the other day about this. The kitchen is and has always been the center of our home life. It is where we explore cuisines, share our troubles, joys, and successes, enjoy a good bottle of wine, and talk about our past, present, and futures. It has been a place of laughter and tears, food and water fights, canning and science experiments, welcoming babies and friends...and a place of creativity. Most of all, it is a place of memories.
We probably all have memories of favorite foods growing up. My fondest is apricot bars that my grandmother made at Thanksgiving and Christmas. As a very young girl, I remember being at her home for holidays. Everyone was socializing in the living room. I was in the dining room stealing apricot bars off the cookie platter and carefully rearranging everything so no one would notice.
One of many of my children's fondest memories of favorite food is sticky buns. Of course, this came up in the conversation. So this morning, I began to help them recollect. It had been a while.
Last night was the final Ribbon Quilt class. I forgot the cord to my machine, so I spent the evening cutting out pieces for a paper-pieced star and thoroughly enjoying what the other women had accomplished. First to share was Ann. After hanging her pieces on a design wall, there was an explosion of color and design.
Jorja's colors were so soothing and earthy. I can't wait to see what this becomes.
And finally, Mindy's ribbons. She had completed quite a lot of ribbons in both the warm and cool color families. She was thinking that she might even have enough for two separate projects. We all agreed to get together in a month or so and share our finished projects. That will be so exciting!
Well, the sticky buns were done, the children were anxiously waiting for them to cool off, so I went upstairs to contemplate my ribbon quilt.
I tend to dream about projects I'm working on. Do you? Often, I see the finished piece before I even start. I have learned that it pays off to follow these dream leads. I'm sure my head was just swimming with stripes after sewing ribbons for two weeks. Then I dreamed about stars and stripes and thought I would incorporate a star into my quilt. So, I sewed the star together, decided I liked the feel, and got out my trusty seam ripper. I separated the two halves of the quilt and will set the star in the middle. Here's what I have so far.
