Sewing with Holly

My Nana taught me to sew when I was a little girl, so it's always something I've been interested in, but have never fully pursued. Recently I've become absolutely determined to learn how to sew properly, so I've been learning and practicing with some friends. My friend Holly is an incredibly talented seamstress, and has been helping me on some projects. This has proven to be such a wonderful experience. Holly has this amazing sewing room at her house, and it's always such a pleasure to sew with her in her beautiful space.

I feel like in some ways I'm channeling my Nana by doing this, while refining a skill I didn't fully recognize I had. It's sort of like riding a bike...cutting out fabric, lining up seams, sewing straight lines, and voila!  You have 1/2 a project completed in only a few hours. Today I worked on a baby quilt for my new niece to be (she's due in April). I just love combining all these different prints and you end up with the whole new creation.  Holly and I went to this Amish quilt show at the deYoung Museum on Friday night and it totally inspired me to do something with lots of little blocks.  I've still got a lot of work to do, but nice to see so much progress on a project in only 1 afternoon. 

 

The original 6 fabrics I picked out at Cliffs (the butterflies are my fav)

 

 A sampling of additional fabrics from Holly

A sneak peak...

Dolores Park

This is my park (well "our" park, but I feel like it's mine)...how can they change it?

The City is planning this 2 year renovation of Dolores Park (I live one block away and whenever possible, spend sunny Sunday afternoons there reading the New York Times). As part of my job, I'm often involved in the public process for proposed alterations to historic buildings, but what about this wonderful gem of a historic park?  I'm still in the fact-finding process, but I want to make sure that this "renovation" has considered the park as a historic resource, because it most definitely is.  An official City park since 1905, it served as a refugee camp during the 1906 Earthquake and Fire and had been an icon of the neighborhood ever since. It is a welcoming gathering place...it's where we go to movie night, where Chester Copperpot makes his rounds, where strapping young men sun themselves on the "beach"...and is by far my favorite people-watching locale.

Time to join the Nimby bandwagon on this one for sure.