Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

I’ve been sitting here with my coffee watching the rain come down. It’s such a rarity these days. (NOT!) Actually I think I’m watching my grass grow. I missed my opportunity to mow yesterday and will now pay the price for procrastinating. That lawn will be too heavy to mulch it, so I’ll be emptying the mower bag repeatedly whenever I am able to get out there. I only have only garbage can which I dedicate to yard waste and my lawn will over fill it. I either need to mow more often, or buy another can. The compost bin is full so that will not be an option til I use more of it.  Oh well..this makes for a great day to sew!

I’m working on some fabric scarves from an Amy Butler pattern. She calls for voile but I’m using some regular quilting cotton from Art Gallery Fabrics. Their fabrics are luscious, in design and texture, but they are heavier than voile. So far I have adapted the pattern by making my scarves narrower. I wish our local shops would carry more of the unusual fabrics, such as the voile and home dec fabrics from these new designers. And way up at the top of my fabric wish list would be some Liberty cottons. I’m sure the owners have the dilemma that their customers don’t ask for them so they don’t carry them. But my response would be-how will your customers learn how superb those fabrics are to use if no one sells them? Hmmph! I guess that is where the internet comes in. Sadly there is little demand for our brick and mortar retailers to add those “unusual” fabrics to their inventories. In the “old days”, when I did quite a bit of garment sewing, I loved to purchase fabric off the beaten path. Raw silks, cashmere wools, Pendleton wools, rayon batiks, …  They made for great garments that no one else had. Often I could get them at sale prices, because not many sewers used them. Do you remember those days when sewing your own clothes was actually cheaper than buying them? Particularly for folks like me who had “champagne taste and a beer pocketbook” as my mom used to say.

I think I’m aging myself. Saw a great book at my local quilt shop yesterday full of funky garment patterns with very cute design elements. The fabric choices were so much fun. Sadly I think they would look much better on a younger woman who either has the body or the attitude to carry them off. I know I’ll be going back to that book every time I visit the shop. I’m going to keep thinking until I come up with a fabric combination that I think a woman of a certain age (my age!) could wear. Almost all of them require zipper insertions! It has been many moons since I’ve dealt with a zipper in a close fitting garment. I don’t wear close fitting any more. How about you? I subscribe to Gilda Radner’s fashion philosophy. Here are two of my favorite quotes from Gilda on this topic: “I base my fashion taste on what doesn’t itch.” and “I sometimes stand in front of a mirror and change a million times because I know I really want to wear my nightgown.“
A student shared this visual of what goes on in our heads that I think you’ll enjoy. I recognized most of the areas as being in my quilter’s brain. You too?