Friday, May 26, 2006

Houston We Have

...Batteries for the digital camera! I didn't get everything on my shopping list today but I did manage to get out of the store with my camera batteries. No pictures to share but I could if I wanted to.

So I've been searching the house high and low for my TW Tropical Dream chart, finally got around to ordering fabric for it(lugana is on sale at Nordic Needle, time to kit up all the TWs in the house) and it vanished. I've had it in the same spot from the moment I purchased it except for the brief time I was writing down my supply list and Annette from Annette's Acre was kind enough to hook me up with the Dinky-Dyes Sapphire. Well I finally found my chart today. It was right in front of me for months. It was hidden away under some papers on the computer desk. It never crossed my mind to look there for the chart. DOH! Looks like I can finally start this project as soon as my fabric arrives from Nordic Needle.

I love it when Quilter's Newsletter Magazine profiles someone who pieces and quilts by hand. It seems like everyone rotary cuts and machine pieces and quilts these days and I feel like I'm the only one slowly but surely tracing my templates onto my fabric and cutting the pieces out using scissors. In the "Meetin' Place" in the June issue they profile Amy Bright from Tucson, Arizona. She says, and I quote, "I don't use shortcuts or gadgets; I don't even have a rotary cutter." Finally someone other than Jinny Beyer who pieces and quilts by hand. Sure there's no instant gratification and quilts take much longer(think years in my case) but it is nice to know that there are at least three of us holdouts out there. Oh and I should state that the only thing any quilt I make has in common with an Amy Bright or Jinny Beyer quilt is that they were made by hand. Believe me you could pick mine out in a nanosecond.

Lately I've been trying to determine if I'm just a freak or a normal person with a crafting idiosyncrasy. You see, I pretty much constantly think about my projects, projects I want to stitch, things I want to make. I go through every day in a haze. No matter what I'm doing(it's especially disconcerting when I'm driving) I'm running projects through my mind. Making lists, trying to figure out if it's ok to start planning on starting a new project in the next week or two, do I have all my supplies, can a person really have 8 TW projects in some stage of progress by the end of the year and keep their sanity? The other day sitting on the beach talking the daughter of a friend I was annoyed that she sat down and started talking, couldn't she see I was lost in my daydreams? Daydreams of completed projects, quilts all over the house(really cool, hip, funky quilts and a few tradtional ones too), Log Cabin afghans from Mason-Dixon Knitting on every bed, a kitchen drawer full of knitted "warsh" rags. What does the normal person think about going about their daily tasks if they aren't dreaming about projects? If I thought about important things like dinner, vacuuming, laundry, bills I'd go freakin' nuts. Viva le point de croix! Ok it's been a long day, kids home, whining about how "bored" they are. Boys, "READ A BOOK! Books are good for you!"

Weekend plans are pretty tame. The wildest thing on our agenda might be a trip to the beach. It's a very scary place on holiday weekends. Not scary in a crime spree kind of way. Just scary because it's like the scene in Summer Rental when John Candy and his family are trying to find a spot on the beach and there are bodies everywhere. EVERYWHERE! That's our beach on holidays. It's pretty bad once summer kicks in even through the week unless you get there at the crack of dawn but at the crack of dawn your chances of sunburn are minimized. I love the smell of the beach on holidays. Something about the scent of Coppertone and Hawaiian Tropic that always puts me in a vacation state of mind. I can go to the beach every day but the one day I smell someone's suntan oil the day just has a festive feel to it. My sunblock doesn't count, it's the scent of it in the air that creates that mental vacation.

So some beaching, some reading(would love to finish The Labyrinth this weekend), plenty of stitching(I'm being positive), and maybe a Pink Panther marathon, maybe a Grey's Anatomy marathon, maybe a Lord of the Rings Marathon(a little rain this weekend wouldn't be a bad thing, I mean we are in a drought at the moment, just sayin'). DS#3 and I usually welcome summer with a Jaws marathon, that might be fun. Oh and plenty of grilling out if it doesn't rain(chances are slim that it will rain).

Happy long weekend to all(at least in the USA)!






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