bread, Elsie & Cookie a trois, hair ?!, tumbling block #3

Michael spent Saturday (2/22) morning golfing (when he came home, he said it was just a slog through the mud...we had another huge rainstorm Friday morning), while I got to sew on my tumbling blocks and watch more Olympics.  I did put together bread dough first thing before heading to the studio since we had NONE in the house.  And just as an aside….it is really weird to walk into the kitchen and have no table and chairs!!!  I use my SILPAT whenever I am making dough.  After I’m done, I wipe it off and drape it over a chair to dry completely before I put it away..…WHAT???  no chair  L.  When I’m in the studio, it is always colder than the upstairs…so again…I come upstairs to shape the dough into loaves…I take off my jacket because now I’m hot and try to hang it on a chair…..you guessed it…still no chair.  I am relating it to the times the electricity goes out during a winter’s day.  I’m sitting there reading a book and I think ‘WOW – I would love some hot chocolate’ so I get up and head to the kitchen…brain wakes up…oh yeah….no electricity…..read some more…begin to think ‘I would really like to get some sewing in today’ stand up, walk over to top of stairs…brain wakes up again ‘no electricity’.  I don’t understand how my brain keeps phasing out like that…..NEVER MIND…..don’t all shout at once….I already KNOW I’m getting old  J.

Ya know…I was thinking about something while I was sewing, and I think my friend Mary Jo has to get some credit for these tumbling blocks.  I had been quilting for awhile, making quilts with ‘modern’ colors & fabrics, but still doing traditional blocks.  Mary Jo was the first one to do a ‘strips and curves quilt’…and she kept telling me if she could do it, I could do it.  At that time, Mary Jo did not consider herself an advanced quilter.  But if she was not (and I think that’s a big if) she more than made up for it with her artistic sense.  Because of her encouraging me on the strips and curves, I have made several and they are hanging in my living room.  And that was just the beginning….I’ve really gotten into more modern quilt patterns and I LOVE them.  So…if you really like my tumbling blocks…Mary Jo definitely deserves some of the credit J.

My bread was baking around 1:30 when Paula stopped down to borrow my strap turning tool…so I asked her if she wanted to chat for 15 minutes and by then the bread was done and she took home 1/2 a loaf: 

 

She told me she has become more anal and it’s all my fault!  She was making meatballs the other day, and got out her scale to weigh them to make sure each one weighed the same….I was laughing while she was telling me this story J. 

I sewed on and off through the afternoon (mostly with company):

 

stopping for a shower and to set my hair (I know this is silly, but I think my hair turned out particularly well and asked Michael to take a picture….why does it always look better in the back than in the front?):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate dinner (leftovers for me) and I made pot stickers for Michael, but I still managed to have this by the time we left at 6:30:

 

 

We headed to Ballentyne and hopped in Lisa & Dean’s car to go into Charlotte for BROADWAY ROCKS, the symphony pops concert at the Knight Theatre.  OMgoodness…it was a fabulous concert…maybe my favorite of this entire season…..they sang/played so many good songs from Phantom, Hair, Wicked and more.  When we left the theatre, Dean suggested we stop for a little dessert and let the crowd get out of the garage.  No only was the dessert fabulous (tiramisu and banana cream pie) but the orchestra, soloists and conductor all came to the restaurant for a nosh….so we got a chance to tell them how great the performnace was.  We were finally home at 11:45 and of course, we had to wait for the electric blanket to heat up…so we finally crawled into bed at 1:15 AM…..WAY too old for this  J.

 

I'll leave you with this final image......

thanks Mary Jo!!!