I enjoyed the weekend watching the bright world spin outside my windows while I sat at the sewing machine listening to the humming whir of the little motor pushing the fabric under the needle. It is soothing that sound. The patterns going on in the bed linens less so.
And besides I needed things. A new curtain for the kitchen. Hard-to-find cases for the body pillow. New potholders, the old ones are falling apart. The blue fabric in the potholders is from a well-worn shirt. The rest are vintage tablecloth scraps leftover from an apron I made a while back.
Simple things for a guerilla sewer like myself who can’t follow the easiest directions and likes to make up the rules as I go.
And now the picture I didn’t take of the JOY BUS speeding past me on Sunday. Its blue and white side panels freshly washed and gleaming in the morning light. In my rear view mirror I watch it approach. J-O-Y B-U-S spelled out in boxy red letters above its windshield. From the looks of things a bus full of clowns hitting the road in a tricked out former school bus- one of the big rounded kind with a domed roof and cartoon fenders. Then it speeds by and I see the faces of grinning kids, not clowns, up against the glass. So excited! I can feel it as they careen past on their way to someplace BIG.
Oooooh, they’re just lover-ly! You are quite the talented lady. I’m still getting caught up on your posts since your trip, but the new walkway is going to look gorgeous! I need to get me some of that tile. My husband’s old boss had her garage tiled with a similar, though likely cheaper, pattern. Yeah. She must have had money to burn 😉 Must be nice….
I will be watching out my window for you driving the Joy Bus coming to take me out of flooded corn fields, boats cruising on golf courses and lots and lots of bright green mold.
Hi Mary Ann!
I love this post…Cant sew to save my life but love what you have made. And the Joy Bus……you got me belly laughing just imagining it! thanks for a little joy! karen b…
I adore those fabrics you used on the potholders :). Such vintage fun! Great work.
I adore those fabrics you used on the potholders :). Such vintage fun! Great work.
I want to feel the yearning of going someplace BIG. I want a JOYBUS!
Love the new linens! It’s inspiring.
Beautiful fabric choices!
Sandra Evertson
Ooo, lovely fabrics and sewing projects. I've been dreaming of bedroom curtains and simple runners for my dresser lately…maybe I'll have to give it a try!
I can see that JOYBUS, what a sight!!!
x…x
When I read the title “Joy Bus” with the photo of the pillows, I thought you would be writing about spend the weekend lounging in a lovely bed, laying about in your sweet garden and generally “leis-ing’ (new verb) around and the Joy Bus was your transport to that state. You transported yourself anyway via your sewing machine.
You are good at that.
(hitching a ride on joy)
I love your fabric and th results of your sewing. I have a machine but can’t even thread the needle! And I didn’t need a photo of the bus I saw it through your eyes. 😀
Mary Ann, Oh, the simple pleasures you write about! Your contentment is contagious. Your’s is my favorite blog. Thanks for sharing everything. Diana
You are my joy bus!
And what’s in the air with the sewing? I found an apron-smock pattern online that I am itching to make; I haven’t sewed a stitch for years and now I feel myself yearning for needle and thread. LOVE the hot pads; maybe I’ll do some of those too. You always get my wheels spinning in the best way. Hugs across the miles.
Mary Ann – Nice linens! I can’t follow a pattern to save my life either. My eyeballs just cross, roll back in my head and I have an immediate urge to go clean out my sock drawer. Anything, but try to follow the pattern. I’m ready to get on board that joy bus…..just rolling down the road. xo fran