roses, kitty, towels

For those of you who asked about the “Liberal” quote, it was none other than former president John F. Kennedy.  As usual, Anne was spot on with the author!

I want to thank everyone who wrote to comment on my new hair-do.  Everyone had such nice things to say, but invariably the second question was: ‘what does Michael think’, since most of you are aware that he loves long hair.  Well, I have to show you what I found when I came home from the hairdressers last Thursday.  He had cut 2 beautiful roses from our bushes by the garage: 

and the first one was in the kitchen and had a note on it saying:  

and the second one was in the living room, with the rest of the sentiment:  

Isn’t my hubby a real sweetie?  Of course, both 'vases' are now on the mantle...apparently the only place we can have cut flowers without the kitties biting their heads off and then playing floor hockey with them!

Michael was up and out by 7:15 AM on Monday (9/10) as they were driving to Chester for golf.  I spent a bit of time writing down a priority list for this week…I suddenly have several things I need to get done and wanted to make sure I didn’t forget any of them, so my list looks like this:

-sandy’s quilt

-barb’s quilt label

-towels for Michael’s cast gifts

-homework for Thursday’s SHQ retreat

-label & binding for Rainbow Blockhead

-find pattern for wrapped package baby quilt

So, the first thing I worked on was setting up the program for Sandy’s quilt.  She made it easy as she said she wanted the same pattern as last time, but not as dense.  Since I keep statistics on every quilt, I looked up her last quilt to set up the pattern, and sent her an email with old and new dimensions to see what she wanted.  By then it was time to book a reservation at the Greenway Restaurant (SCORE!!!) and head out to Hobby Lobby.  So, several weeks ago I saw a beaded necklace in a window at the Lake House (in somewhat rainbow colors) and wrote to the maker to ask a couple of questions.  She was less than helpful in her reply, so I headed to the internet.  I found a picture of a necklace that I liked even better…and have been trying to find a pattern for it ever since.  I’ve talked to 2 other jewelry makers and they were VERY helpful, but neither on knew how to get the pattern I wanted, and both have also stated that I could only do a 4 color braid and not a 6 color as I want to.  You know, that’s all you have to say to me sometimes is that I CAN”T do something and that just makes me more determined!  I have a rigid heddle loom and weaver after weaver (both in person and on the internet) said that you can’t warp with mohair on a rigid heddle loom.  Next time you’re visiting me, just ask to see my woven mohair shawls  :~).  Anyway, I spent hours and hours on Saturday and Sunday, staring at patterns and trying to figure out how they work, and I think I may have figured out how to do what I want.  But, since I have never before done beaded kumihimo braiding of any kind, I decided to start with 4 colors (instead of the 6 colors that I want), since I know people who can help me with that.  I’m still making up my pattern and hoping it turns out the way I envision.  I headed to Hobby Lobby as they had all of their beads on sale 50% off.  I got 4 colors of beads (in grays and blacks to hopefully make something elegant that you can wear with anything), along with the right kind of string and then made a quick stop at the chiro before heading home.  BUT….I was still SO EXCITED about doing the original necklace that I proceeded to spend TWO AND A HALF HOURS on the internet, looking at different beads in different colors to get exactly what I wanted for the 6 color necklace.  Sometimes the internet is a dangerous place…as in sucking up too much time!!  So, stay tuned for the continuing jewelry saga.

By then Sandy had written me back and I tweaked her program a bit, got my bobbins wound and kicked everything off.  She gave me a wool batting, and I don’t know if it’s because it’s wool, or because there’s something else going on with it, but it is so fluffy!!!  I LOVE it!  I only got 3 rows done on Sandy’s quilt before I heard the thunder moving in, so I shut everything down.  I had company again while I was working….both Ethel and Lucy apparently LOVE the newest quilt:  

And I will say again how hard it is to get good pictures of totally black cats!!!

I spent quite a bit of time reclaiming the lavender fabric from the sides and top of bottom of the last 2 quilts (remember that pile o’stuff from yesterday?) and I got sixteen 4-1/2’’ by 10’’ rectangles cut for the final color in my Four Patch Frenzy retreat quilt:  

I did manage to get 2 of the cast gift towels done 

before heading upstairs to watch TV with my honey and continue working on a knitting UFO.