Rhythms of Life

Well I apologize for the absence… Life has taken over. The Piles have taken over. The Patterns have taken over.

I wanted to thank all of you emailed your concerns and prayers for our family. My mother-in-law is doing much better and even though she is still in the hospital going on week 4 now, things are slowly starting to look better. Unfortunately, I know way more about acute leukemia than I ever hoped I would.

In the midst of all this personal stuff, I managed to send off my newest line of fabric, Fig & Plum. I am going to totally sneak in a little piece of one of my favorites here…. although it is still so totally in production, we don’t even have final strikeoffs yet. I am sure that MODA will pull off a miracle as they always do and everything will be ready and gorgeous and where it needs to be on time! I really love working with such an amazing company- thanks ladies if any of you are reading!!

Oh… and 3 days ago I finally sent off the manuscript and the projects for our next book with That Patchwork Place. I am very excited about the goodies that are in this book and hope to share some sneaks with you soon…. can’t yet though.

In the midst of all of this personal and business stuff crashing down all at once, we started to realize that we had lost many of the rhythms of our lives. Those seemingly insignificant rituals and routines that make up our days and our weeks… they had just dissapeared somewhere in the activity of it all. That’s not good. We need them back even if just some of them…

So this week has been about trying to start re establishing those routines, even one by one. Eric and I took a walk around the neighborhood in the middle of the day. I don’t think we had done that since Ella was an infant! Zachary and I are reading together. In fact, Zachary is reading to everybody, mostly to Ella… now that is the cutest thing you have ever seen. Ella and I are picking flowers together again. You know, those little mixed bouquets of whatever you can find in a garden that has not been tended for at least a year. The jasmine is in full bloom on our country fence and the scent day and night is intoxicating. Each bouquet is filled with jasmine… We have started eating our lunch outside in the garden. It does a soul good to be out in the freshness of Spring. My Magnolia trees are in full bloom and they are magnificent. They have already inspired 2 different quilts as the new line has a beautiful magnolia violet color in it! Oh,the very thought of it makes me want to applique magnolias….

On a different note, I have fallen in love with the new Bari J. bags. I find myself dreaming up fabric combinations for that new Mille Fleur bag with velvets mixed with Fig Tree fabrics…. oh, good enough to eat.

Talk to you soon. Remember, now that I’m back, I have more Paris shots to share. I am working on a line inspired by them in fact…. stay tuned….