Joanne's quilt done

So, my friend Cathy L noticed in the blog that I was reading BETTER FASTER SMARTER a few weeks ago and recommended another book called CURIOSITY.  She had “BFS” on HER list to read in the future, and had just finished CURIOSITY and wanted my opinion on it.  She thought I would like it…and she was RIGHT!  I am loving this book!  It has answered some questions for me that I haven’t really understood how to answer in the past.  I read blogs about many things and as an example, several of them are about custom quilting.  I was raving about one of the blogs to a friend awhile ago, and she asked me why I was reading them.  I said I liked them.  She said “are you ever going to do custom quilting” and I said “no”, so she asked again why I was reading them.  The only answer I could come up with was that they were art and I like to look at beautiful things….but that didn’t really feel exactly right.  Well, guess what the real answer is?  I am a curious person!!!  And when I think about it, I realize that is totally true.  If I get interested in a subject...and I get interested in all kinds of things (weaving/long arm quilting/making soap as some examples), first I take a bunch of books out from the library to read about it, then I search the internet for more information on the topic, then I join forums or search out blogs to talk to people about it.  I feel like I am constantly searching out and learning new things, and I think I’ve always been that way.  I think I get bored easily and like to continually search out interesting/new things to learn.  To me, that’s what keeps life exciting!  I know lots of my friends (especially here in SC) say to me “is there anything you don’t do?”  I always respond that there are lots of things I don’t do (most notably clean my house  :~), but in truth, I realize that I am into lots of things that other people aren’t.  Sometimes it makes it a bit lonely that I don’t have close friends doing all of the same things I am so that we could talk about all of them….but I’m not going to stop learning about new things because of that!  I have to admit, sometimes it bugs me a little when I have done a lot of research on something, and then someone wants the “Cliff’s Notes” version of something I’ve learned, but according to the CURIOUS book, I’m going to retain more and have more knowledge because the harder it has been to gain the knowledge, the more you retain/get out of it  :~).  Anyway, that’s the latest book I’m into  :~).

I will be demo-ing a recipe in March for Sweet & Savory (an offshoot of Cooking Fingers) and decided to make it up on Sunday morning (2/19).  These are called Cheesy Bacon Puff s and for the club meeting I will be making them in mini-muffin tins, but for our breakfast I just made regular sized muffins.  

Michael pronounced them EXCELLENT….so I guess I’m all set on that front.  He headed out to walk Cookie after that, while I headed to my studio to load up Joanne’s quilt.  

I worked on it all afternoon, and by dinnertime the quilting was done….I forgot how nice it is to do a small quilt for a change  :~).  I got the basting ripped out before our late dinner of leftovers and Joanne came by afterwards to pick up her quilt:  

Isn't that elephant print adorable?

I worked on trimming down 1/2 square triangles after dinner, and headed upstairs after 8 PM when my eyes/hands couldn’t take it any more  :~).  There was lots of snuggling going on during the day….some upstairs:  

And then some downstairs when Michael and I were both down there:  

kneading begins

But eventually Cookie shrugs off Elsie and it goes back to normal: