Just being Grateful

So this is a near perfect day. Breezy, intermittently sunny, couple of sprinkles, but all in all a near perfect day. I've been out in a garden, trying to reclaim from weeds and even through all the hard work that it is, I just keep feeling gratitude. To be able to do what I'm doing. To be able to choose it, to be able to enjoy it, to be able to find satisfaction in it.

Recently I did something for someone and the first response was "You didn't have to do that." And that caused me to smile because that's when the doing is the most fun. When you don't have to, but get to.

The following poem was written by William Earnest Henley. There are lots of interpretations and many who feel the poet was agnostic and so discount it, but for me the preferences of the writer do not determine how I feel or what the poem means to me. The same is true for me about everything. No one else believes exactly as I do, so I don't accept or reject anything based on what the creator does or doesn't believe.

I see God in everything. Even a poem written by one who might not.

My favorite line... "Finds and shall find me unafraid" So much in the world is about fear... insurance, hatred, burglar alarms, prejudice, safety latches, bigotry, rainy day funds, contingency plans...

I love this poem for it's outright rejection of a life lived in fear. He is determined but more than that, he is hopeful. As am I.

Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid
.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Project # 23 New Skirt

I finished a skirt today that I drafted to my size and the tweaks that make me happiest. It has a zipper, slash pockets and a blind hem.

For anyone who hasn't tried or figured out the blind hem, I really really really recommend you do and keep at. It makes your skirt, dress or blouse (yes you can blind hem a blouse) lay so well. It takes a little more time, but the effort is so worth it. Not only do you end up with a skirt that hangs beautifully, the blind hem process allows you to ease in any extra fullness easily and beautifully.

In the picture I'm attempting to show both the slash pocket and the blind hem. For whatever reason, today I just couldn't get a clearer pic and so this one is it. The fabric is a bargain that has been in my studio for quite some time. It is a really warm brown, like lovely milk chocolate and will go with anything. There is the tiniest bit of spandex in it, which helps keep shape. I hemmed it to mid knee and put it on as soon as it was finished and may very well wear it for the next week.

Okay not really, but I do like it well enough that I am in process of making a second skirt today. It's a very simple modified A line pattern. Nearly every learn to sew book contains instructions for making your own skirt pattern. I modified it in two ways, the first, I narrow the waist slightly and removed the darts as they never quite laid right on my figure. The second alteration was to make the width of the skirt a little narrower and less A line. Not a pencil certainly, but not a true A line. All I can tell you is to try and error your way to the correct pattern.

Now that I've achieved a pattern worth making more than once, I can begin customizing each skirt to make them unique. To this skirt I added slash pockets, which are a very simple to do, but look confusing. There are some tutorials on the web. No need to buy a pattern.

It's Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to each of you who love your children.